Abdollah Nouri

Abdollah Nouri

Chairman of City Council of Tehran
In office 29 April 1999 – 11 September 1999
Deputy	Saeed Hajjarian
Succeeded by	Abbas Douzdouzani
Minister of the Interior of Iran
In office 1989–1993
Preceded by	Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur
Succeeded by	Ali Mohammad Besharati
In office 1997–1998
Preceded by	Ali Mohammad Besharati
Succeeded by	Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari
Personal details
Born	1950 (age 65–66) Esfahan, Iran
Religion	Shia Islam

Abdollah Noori ( pronunciation ; Persian: عبدالله نوری‎‎) is an Iranian reformist politician and cleric. Despite his "long history of service to the Islamic Republic," he became the most senior Islamic politician to be sentenced to prison since the Iranian Revolution when he was sentenced to five years in prison for political and religious dissent in 1999.^[1] He has been called the "bête noire" of Islamic conservatives in Iran.^[2]

Career

Abdollah Nouri was called a "trusted lieutenant" of Ayatollah Khomeini who was "the religious guide to the Revolutionary Guards early in the revolution."^[3] Khomeini appointed him as his representative to many other important organisations as well.^[1] Khomeini's successor, supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also appointed him a member "of a powerful council which advises him on major policies". However Abdollah Nouri also supported dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, who was placed under house arrest in 1997 for questioning the authority of Ayatollah Khamenei.^[1]

Nouri served as minister of interior for four years in then President Hashemi Rafsanjani's first term cabinet. He also served as the minister of interior in Mohammad Khatami's first term cabinet until his impeachment by the conservative-controlled 5th Majlis for his "defence of political and social freedoms." Following his impeachment, Khatami brought Abdullah Nouri back to his cabinet as a vice-president.^[1] He was "generally seen as the most outspoken reformist" in Khatami's cabinet.^[1]

In February 1999, he stood down from this post to take part in the municipal elections in February and was elected as the chief of the City Council of Tehran.

He resigned from the Council in order to participate in the sixth parliamentary election. He founded a newspaper and named it Khordad, named after the victory of President Khatami on the 2nd of Khordad, 1376 by the Iranian calendar, equivalent to 23 May 1997. His newspaper advocated "freedom of expression, human rights and a modern and democratic Islam."^[1]

Trial

Based on the contents of this newspaper, Nouri was accused of insulting Islamic values by pushing for democratic reforms, dishonoring Imam Ruhollah Khomeini's memory by questioning the authority of the Supreme Leader. According to a Western journalist, another explanation for his prosecution was that Nouri was very popular in Tehran and "the odds on favorite to become Speaker of Parliament in the February 2000 Parliamentary election," something imprisonment would prevent.^[3]

He was tried by the Special Clerical Court in Iran and made an "outspoken and aggressive defence during his trial",^[1] refusing to accept the authority of this court, which he saw as unconstitutional.

In November 1999, he was convicted of insulting Ayatollah Khomeini, publishing anti-religious materials, disturbing public opinion, insulting officials, advocating links with the United States and was sentenced to five years in jail.^[4]^[5]

Readers of the Iranian voted him the most significant Iranian personality of 1999.^[6]

Release

Nouri was released from prison on 5 November 2002.^[7] He was released because his brother Alireza Noori, a member of parliament at the time, was killed in an accident. Mr. Noori was freed from Evin Prison when Mehdi Karroubi, speaker of the Majlis at the time, wrote a letter to the Supreme Leader and asked him to free Noori as his father was suffering from the loss of his other son.

Abdollah Nouri was mentioned as a possible candidate in the 2009 presidential election,^[2] but did not run.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Profile of Abdollah Nouri. BBC News
1 2 Abdollah Nouri’s Two Conditions for Candidacy
1 2 Sciolino, Elaine Persian Mirrors: the Elusive Face of Irans, Free Press, 2000, 2005 p. 307-8
↑ Iran: Abdollah Nouri, prisoner of conscience
↑ Shea, Nina (26 January 2009). ""Insulting Islam": One Way Street in the Wrong Direction". Hudson Institute. Archived from the original on 14 June 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
↑ Iran's Galileo
↑ "Iran: Abdollah Nouri’s release welcomed, but all prisoners of conscience must also be released". Amnesty International. n.d. Retrieved 26 July 2009.

Political offices
Preceded by Ali Akbar Mohtashami-Pur	Interior minister of Iran 1989–1993	Succeeded by Ali Mohammad Besharati
Preceded by Ali Mohammad Besharati	Interior minister of Iran 1997–1998	Succeeded by Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari
Preceded by None	Chairman of City Council of Tehran 1999	Succeeded by Mohammad Atrianfar

Interior Ministers of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Ahmad Sayyed Javadi Hashem Sabbaghian Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur Abdollah Nouri Ali Mohammad Besharati Abdollah Nouri Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi Ali Kordan Sadegh Mahsouli Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli

Cabinet of President Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005)

Cabinet

Minister of Foreign Affairs	Kamal Kharrazi (1997–2005)

Minister of Agriculture**	Isa Kalantari (1997–2000)

Minister of Jihad of Construction**	Mohammad Saeedikia (1997–2000)

Ministry of Jihad of Agriculture**	Mahmoud Hojjati (2000–2005)

Minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone	Mohammad Reza Aref (1997–2000) Ahmad Motamedi (2000–2005)

Minister of Labour and Social Affairs	Hossein Kamali (1997–2001) Safdar Hosseini (2001–2004) Nasser Khaleghi (2004–2005)

Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance	Attaollah Mohajerani (1997–2000) Ahmad Masjed-Jamei (2000–2005)

Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Ali Shamkhani (1997–2005)

Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance	Hossein Namazi (1997–2001) Tahmasb Mazaheri (2001–2004) Safdar Hosseini (2004–2005)

Minister of Education	Hossein Mozaffar (1997–2001) Morteza Haji (2001–2005)

Minister of Energy	Habibolah Bitaraf (1997–2005)

Minister of Health and Medical Education	Mohammad Farhadi (1997–2001) Masoud Pezeshkian (2001–2005)

Minister of Mines and Metals***	Eshaq Jahangiri (1997–2000)

Minister of Industries***	Gholamreza Shafeei (1997–2000)

Minister of Industries and Mines***	Eshaq Jahangiri (2000–2005)

Minister of Intelligence	Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi (1997–1998) Ali Younesi (1998–2005)

Minister of Interior	Abdollah Nouri (1997–1998) Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari (1998–2005)

Minister of Justice	Mohammad Ismaeil Shooshtari (1997–2005)

Minister of Petroleum	Bijan Namdar Zanganeh (1997–2005)

Minister of Roads and Transportation	Mahmoud Hojatti (1997–2001) Rahman Dadman (2001) Ahmad Khorram (2001–2004) Mohammad Rahmati (2004–2005)

Commerce	Mohammad Shariatmadar (1997–2005)

Minister of Science, Research and Technology	Mostafa Moeen (1997–2003) Jafar Towfighi (2003–2005)

Minister of Welfare and Social Security****	Mohammad Hossein Sharifzadegan (2004–2005)

Ministry of Cooperatives	Morteza Haji (1997–2001) Ali Soufi (2001–2005)

Ministry of Housing and Urban Development	Ali Abdolalizadeh (1997–2005)

Cabinet-level

First Vice President	Hassan Habibi (1997–2001) Mohammad Reza Aref (2001–2005)

Chief of Staff	Mohammad-Ali Abtahi (1997–2001) Ali Khatami (2001–2005)

Vice President and Head of Atomic Energy Organization	Gholam Reza Aghazadeh (1997–2005)

Vice President and Head of Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization	Mohammad Beheshti Shirazi (1997–2003) Hossein Marashi (2003–2005)

Vice President and Head of Environmental Protection Organization	Masoumeh Ebtekar (1997–2005)

Vice President and Head of Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs	Hossein Dehghan (2002–2005)

Vice President and Head of Management and Planning Organization of Iran	Mohammad-Ali Najafi (1997–2000) Mohammad Reza Aref (2000–2001) Mohammad Sattarifar (2001–2004) Hamidreza Baradaran-Shoraka (2004–2005)

Vice President and Head of Physical Education Organization	Mostafa Hashemitaba (1997–2001) Mohsen Mehralizadeh (2001–2005)

Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs	Mohammad-Ali Abtahi (2001–2004) Majid Ansari (2004–2005)

* Acting
**Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Jihad of Construction merged, forming Ministry of Jihad of Agriculture
***Ministry of Industries and Ministry of Mines and Metals merged, forming Ministry of Industries and Mines
****established in 2004

External links

Nouri banned from Iranian election

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