TEHRAN, Oct. 9 (AP) -- Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first president after the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution who fled Tehran after being impeached for challenging the growing power of clerics as the nation became a theocracy, has died. He was 88.

His family and Iranian state television made the announcement Saturday. They said he had suffered from a long illness, without elaborating. Among a sea of black-robed Shiite clerics, Banisadr stood out for his Western-style suits and French background.

He would never consolidate his grip on the government he supposedly led as events far beyond his control — including the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis and the invasion of Iran by Iraq — only added to the tumult that followed the Islamic Revolution.