| Ali Kordan (Persian: علی کردان) | |
|---|---|
| Minister of the Interior of Iran | |
| In office August 12, 2008 – November 4, 2008 |
|
| President | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad |
| Preceded by | Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi |
| Succeeded by | Sadegh Mahsouli |
| Deputy oil minister | |
| In office October, 2007 – August 12, 2008 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1958? |
| Died | November 22, 2009 (aged 51) Tehran, Iran |
Ali Kordan (1958? – November 22, 2009) was an Iranian conservative politician who served in the Revolutionary Guards, the judiciary and as deputy oil minister, before becoming interior minister of Iran in 2008 for just 90 days. He was impeached by the Iranian Parliament on November 4, 2008 after a doctorate he claimed to hold turned out to be fraudulent.[1]
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A former revolutionary guard,[2] Kordan was appointed deputy oil minister in around October 2007. He had turned down the offer of the same position in 2006.[3]
He had previously served as deputy labour minister, president of Iran's Technical and Vocational Organization, deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) for provincial and parliamentary affairs, deputy head of IRIB for administrative and financial affairs, and deputy minister for culture and Islamic guidance for administrative and financial affairs.[3]
During his post as the deputy head of IRIB in financial affairs, Ali Kordan was accused of a high-profile financial corruption (525 billion Tomans). However the judiciary system did not charge him after a long investigation. The Kayhan newspaper published an article accusing Kordan of corruption in re "The Crescent File".
In 2008, President Ahmadinejad chose Kordan as the Minister of Interior.[4] However, during his confirmation debate in the Iranian parliament, questions arose among MPs and in the media over his qualifications and over a doctorate he claimed to have received.[5] On August 5, Kordan was approved by Parliamentas Minister of Interior by "a relatively slim margin" of around 160 of the 269 lawmakers present.[6]
Kordan claimed to have an Honorary Doctorate in law from Oxford University. When this was questioned he released a document stating that such a degree had been conferred on him in June 2000 and under-signed by three Oxford University professors. A copy of the certificate was released and Alef, a website "associated with one of Ahmadinejad's critics", pointed to "typing errors, garbled English and misspellings".[2]
The document stated Kordan
"has shown a great effort in preparing educational materials and his research in the domain of comparative law, that has opened a new chapter, not only in our university, but, to our knowledge, in this country"[7]
Kordan was granted the degree "to be benefitted from it's [sic] scientific privileges", "entitled" was spelt "intitled", and spaces were left out after commas.[7][8] Responding to an inquiry by Alef news agency, on August 11, 2008, Oxford University denied it had awarded Kordan an honorary doctorate of law or any other degree. Four days later the university published an official statement on its website that they have no record of Kordan having received any degree, honorary or otherwise.[9][10] It noted that none of the professors whose alleged signatures were on the certificate were working in the field of law, and none of them would sign degree certificates.[7][11][12] As a result, chairman of Iranian parliament Ali Larijani initiated an investigation into the validity of Kordan's degree.[7][13] It was later revealed, according to news service MSNBC, that Kordan did not receive two other degrees he had claimed, a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Iran's Open University.[7]
Two days after the Oxford University response, the state news agency IRNA reported that the Tehran prosecutor's office announced that investigating Alef news website had been "banned based on complaints by legal entities".[7] It was reported that Alef News Website (Alef.ir) had been blocked by the Iranian "authorities".[4] As of August 27, 2008, the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of the Islamic Republic denied announcing any statement on Kordan's Doctorate Degree.[10]
On September 27, 2008, in a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kordan admitted that the degree was fake, explaining that he had been deceived by a "person who claimed to represent Oxford University in Tehran". After holding the degree for eight years he was astonished to learn that "the university did not confirm (the degree) when my representative went there". Kordan said his search for this fraudulent Oxford intermediary had proven fruitless but that he had filed a complaint against the person, whom he did not name, on September 14.[14] Kordan also accused the media of a smear campaign by portraying him as a "terrorist".[2]
On November 4, 2008, the Iranian parliament voted to impeach Interior Minister Ali Kordan for lying about his credentials and presenting a fake degree from Oxford University. Out of 247 MPs present, 188 voted to impeach Kordan, with 14 lawmakers against the motion and 45 abstentions.[6][15]
Kordan died of multiple myeloma at Tehran's Masihe Daneshvari hospital on November 22, 2009; he was believed to be 51 years old. He had also suffered from influenza and a brain hemorrhage.[16]
| Preceded by Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi |
Interior minister of Iran 2008 |
Succeeded by Sadegh Mahsouli |
|
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