The first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Abolhassan Banisadr, died in Paris at the age of 88, Iranian state media reported Saturday.

After the 1979 revolution in Iran, Banisadr, a politician and economist, was elected as the country's first president on January 25, 1980.

The 1979 revolution transformed the U.S.-backed and monarch-ruled country into a republic under Islamic ideology.

(With input from Xinhua)