| Abulhassan Banisadr ابوالحسن بنیصدر |
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|---|---|
| President of Iran | |
| In office 4 February 1980 – 21 June 1981 |
|
| Supreme Leader | Ruhollah Khomeini |
| Prime Minister | Mohammad-Ali Rajai |
| Succeeded by | Mohammad-Ali Rajai |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 12 November 1979 – 29 November 1979 |
|
| Prime Minister | Mehdi Bazargan |
| Preceded by | Ebrahim Yazdi |
| Succeeded by | Sadegh Ghotbzadeh |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 27 February 1979 – 12 November 1979 |
|
| Prime Minister | Mehdi Bazargan |
| Preceded by | Ali Ardalan |
| Succeeded by | Hossein Namazi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 March 1933 Hamadan,[1] Iran |
| Political party | Independent |
| Other political affiliations |
People's Mujahedin of Iran (1981-1984) |
| Spouse(s) | Ozra Banisadr |
| Religion | Usuli Twelver Shia Islam |
| Signature | |
Abulhassan Banisadr (Persian: ابوالحسن بنیصدر; born 22 March 1933) is an Iranian politician, economist and human rights activist who served as the first President of Iran from 4 February 1980 after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy until his impeachment on 21 June 1981 by the Parliament of Iran. Prior to his presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Interim Government.
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Banisadr was born in 22 March 1933 in Hamedan in a religious family. His father was close to the Ruhollah Khomeini. He studied Finance and Economics at the Sorbonne.
Banisadr had participated in the anti-Shah student movement during the early 1960s, was imprisoned twice, and was wounded during an uprising in 1963. He then fled to France and joined the Iranian resistance group led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Banisadr returned to Iran together with Khomeini as the revolution was beginning in February 1979. He wrote a book on Islamic finance, Eghtesad Tohidi, an Arabic phrase that roughly translates as "The Economics of Monotheism."
After the Iranian Revolution, Banisadr became Deputy Minister of Finance in 4 February 1979 and was in office until 27 February 1979. After the resignation of Interim Government's finance minister Ali Ardalan resigned in 27 February 1979, he was appointed as Finance Minister by Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. In 12 November 1979, Banisadr was appointed as Foreign Minister to replace Ebrahim Yazdi in a government that was led by Council of Islamic Revolution. He was elected as President of the Council after Mahmoud Taleghani's death and was president until he was elected as President of the Republic.
He was elected to a four-year term as President on 25 January 1980, receiving 78.9 percent of the vote in the election, and was inaugurated on 4 February. Khomeini remained the Supreme Leader of Iran, with the constitutional authority to dismiss the President. The inaugural ceremonies were held at the hospital where Khomeini was recovering from a heart ailment.[2]
Banisadr was not an Islamic cleric; Khomeini had insisted that clerics should not run for positions in the government. In August and September 1980, Banisadr survived two helicopter crashes near the Iranian border with Iraq.
Banisadr soon fell out with Khomeini, who reclaimed the power of Commander-in-Chief on 10 June 1981.
The Majlis (Iran's Parliament) impeached Banisadr in his absence on 21 June 1981, allegedly because of his moves against the clerics in power, in particular Mohammad Beheshti, then head of the judicial system. Khomeini himself appears to have instigated the impeachment, which he signed the next day.
Even before Khomeini had signed the impeachment papers, the Revolutionary Guard had seized the Presidential buildings and gardens, and imprisoned writers at a newspaper closely tied to Banisadr. Over the next few days, they executed several of his closest friends, including Hossein Navab, Rashid Sadrolhefazi, and Manouchehr Massoudi. Ayatollah Montazeri was among the few people in the government in support of Banisadr, but he was soon stripped of his powers.
At the same time, the Iranian government outlawed all political parties, except the Islamic Republic Party. Government forces arrested and imprisoned members of other parties, such as the People's Mujahedin, Fadaian Khalq, Tudeh, and Paikar.
Banisadr went into hiding two days after his removal, and hid in remote areas of western Iran, protected by the People's Mujahedin (PMOI) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). He attempted to organize an alliance of anti-Khomeini factions to retake power, including the PMOI, KDP, and the Fedaian Organisation (Minority), while eschewing any contact with pro-Shah exile groups. He met numerous times while in hiding with PMOI leader Massoud Rajavi to plan an alliance, but after the execution on 27 July of PMOI member Mohammadreza Saadati, Banisadr and Rajavi concluded that it was unsafe to remain in Iran.[3]
In Mr. Banisadr's view this impeachment was a coup-de-etat against the democracy in Iran. In order to settle the political differences in the country President Banisadr had asked for a referendum. Afterwards Ayatollah Khomeini made a speech, in which he said if 36 million people say yes, I can say no. In order to give a legal front to his removal from presidency, Ayatollah Khomeini first tried to get the judiciary to remove him. Since they didn't cooperate, he ordered the parliament to remove him. The parliament which at most represented about 25% of the people of Iran, which was elected with fraud in many of the cities.
On 28 July 1981, Banisadr and Rajavi were smuggled aboard an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707 piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi. It followed a routine flight plan before deviating out of Iranian groundspace to Turkish airspace and eventually landing in Paris.
Banisadr and Rajavi found political asylum in Paris, conditional on abstaining from anti-Khomeini activities in France. This restriction was effectively ignored after France evacuated its embassy in Tehran, and Banisadr and Rajavi set up the National Council of Resistance of Iran.[3] However, Banisadr soon fell out with Rajavi, accusing him of ideologies favouring dictatorship and violence. Furthermore, Banisadr opposed the armed opposition as initiated and sustained by Rajavi, and sought support for Iran during the war with Iraq.
In a 1991 book, Banisadr alleged covert dealing between the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign and leaders in Tehran to prolong the Iran hostage crisis before the 1980 U.S. presidential election.[4]
In July 2009, Banisadr publicly denounced the Iranian government's conduct after the disputed presidential election: "Khamenei ordered the fraud in the presidential elections and the ensuing crackdown on protesters". He said the government was "holding on to power solely by means of violence and terror" and accused its leaders of amassing wealth for themselves, to the detriment of other Iranians.[5]
In published articles on the 2009 Iranian election protests, he ascribed the unusually open political climate before the election to the government's great need to prove its legitimacy.[6] However, he said the government had lost all legitimacy. In particular, the spontaneous uprising had cost it its political legitimacy, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's threats - leading to the violent crackdown - its religious legitimacy.[4]
As of August 2011[update], he lives in Versailles, near Paris, in a villa closely guarded by French police.[5][6]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Ali Ardalan |
Minister of Finance of Iran 1979 |
Succeeded by Hossein Namazi |
| Preceded by Ebrahim Yazdi |
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran 1979 |
Succeeded by Sadegh Ghotbzadeh |
| Preceded by Mahmoud Taleghani |
President of the Council of Islamic Revolution 1979-1980 |
Succeeded by Position abolished |
| Preceded by Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi as Shah of Iran |
President of Iran 1980-1981 |
Succeeded by Mohammad-Ali Rajai |
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