Mohammad Reyshahri

Mohammad Reyshahri
Minister of Intelligence of Iran
In office 18 August 1984 – 1 August 1989
President	Ali Khamenei
Prime Minister	Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Preceded by	Nasser Moghadam
Succeeded by	Ali Fallahian
Personal details
Born	Mohammad Mohammadi-Nik October 29, 1946 Rey, Iran
Alma mater	Haghani Circle
Religion	Islam

Mohammad Reyshahri (Persian: محمد ری شهری‎‎), also known as Mohammad Mohammadi-Nik, (born 29 October 1946), best known as Reyshahri, is an Iranian politician and cleric who was the first Minister of Intelligence, served from 1984 to 1989 in cabinet of Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Early life and education

Reyshahri was born into a religious family in Rey on 29 October 1946.^[1][2] He was educated in Qom and Najaf in the field of theology.^[1] He and his successor at the ministry of intelligence, Ali Fallahian, are alumni of the Haqqani School in Qom.^[3] He began to involve in political activities in June 1963 during the religious revolts after Khomeini's famous speech in Qom.^[1]

Career

In 1967, Reyshahri fled to Najaf and stayed there for a while. Upon his return to Iran, he was imprisoned.^[1] Until the revolution, he was banned from preaching.^[1]

During the revolution, Reyshahri claimed to have discovered two abortive Coup d'état: the Nozheh coup, which was supposed to happen on 8 July 1980 by supporters of Shapour Bakhtiar, and was reported to Reyshahri by Saeed Hajjarian, and the Ghotbzadeh coup, which led to the execution of Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and the removal of grand ayatollah Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari from being a marja by the Society of Teachers of the Qom Hawza. The ayatollah was subsequently put under house arrest, and died in 1986. In his memoirs, Reyshahri reveals that he personally hit grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari during the interrogations.

Reyshahri served as minister of intelligence in the cabinet headed by then prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi from 1984 to 1989.^[4] Into his tenure as minister of intelligence falls the case of Mehdi Hashemi. Reyshahri executed Hashemi two days ahead of schedule on 28 September 1987, so that Reyshahri would not need to follow a letter written by Khomeini on 28 September in which he informed Reyshahri that the sentence had been commuted to internal exile.^[5]

Reyshahri was appointed chief prosecutor of the Special Court for the Clergy in 1990. It was Reyshahri who drafted the court's 47-article ordinance passed in 1990.^[5] Before the Majlis elections in 1996 he established the Society for the Defence of the Values of the Islamic Revolution.^[6] Reyshahri was also an unsuccessful presidential candidate in the election on 23 May 1997, which led to the presidency of Mohammad Khatami.^[7] Reyshahri ranked fourth among the four candidates approved to run by the Guardian Council. Following the elections, he established

He was appointed representative for Hajj affairs to Ali Khameni.^[8] He is the dean of the Dar Al Hadith Scientific Cultural Institute.^[2]

Personal life

Reyshahri married the daughter of Ayatollah Ali Meshkini in 1968, when she was 9. It was Ayatollah Meshkini who first called him Reyshahri ("of the city of Rey"). Reyshahri is generally feared in Iran and sometimes referred to as "the scary Ayatollah" (آيت‌الله مخوف). Reyshahri has written on the sayings of the prophet Mohammad and Shia Imams. His book, Mizan al Hikmah, summarizes thousands of these sayings with very interesting discussions. He has also published his memoirs.

References and notes

1. Buchta, Wilfried (2000). Who rules Iran? (PDF). The Washington Institute and The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. p. 19.
2. "Dean of Dar Al-Hadith Scientific-Cultural Institute". Dar Al-Hadith Scientific-Cultural Institute. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
3. "Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security: A profile" (Report). Federal Research Division. December 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
4. Bar, Shmuel (2009). "Iranian terrorist policy and "export of revolution"" (PDF). Interdisciplinary Center. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
5. Künkler, Mirjam (13 May 2009). "The Special Court of the Clergy (Dādgāh-Ye Vizheh-Ye Ruhāniyat) and the Repression of Dissident Clergy in Iran". Social Science Research Network. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
6. Alam, Shah (2000). "Conservatives, liberals and the struggle over Iranian politics". Strategic Analysis 24 (3): 553–583. doi:10.1080/09700160008455232. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
7. Elton L. Daniel (16 January 2012). The History of Iran. ABC-CLIO. p. 234. ISBN 978-0-313-37510-1. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
8. "Iran Saudi Arabia ties growing ties: Reyshahri". Mathaba. 19 December 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2013.

External links

• Members of the Expediency Discernment Council (2000)