Former Iranian president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr dies aged 88

First president after 1979 Islamic revolution clashed with clerics and fled to exile in France a year later

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, who became Iran's first president after the 1979 Islamic revolution before fleeing into exile in France, has died aged 88.

He died on Saturday at the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris following a long illness, his wife and children said on Bani-Sadr's official website.