| Mohammad Reyshahri | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Intelligence | |
| 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 | 1946 Rey, Iran |
| Alma mater | Haqqani School |
| Religion | Twelver Shia Islam |
Mohammad Reyshahri (Mohammad Mohammadi-Nik) (born 1946), best known as Reyshahri, is an Iranian politician and cleric who was first Iranian Minister of Intelligence of Islamic Republic of Iran from 1984 to 1989 in cabinet of Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi.
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Reyshahri was born in Rey.
He 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 "). Reyshahri is generally feared in Iran and sometimes referred to as "the scary Ayatollah" (آيتالله مخوف). He and his successor at the ministry of intelligence, Ali Fallahian, are alumni of the Haqqani School in Qom. Reyshahri has written on the sayings of the prophet Mohammad and Shia Imams. His book میزان الحکمه (mizan al hikmah) summarizes thousands of these sayings with very interesting discussions. He has also published his memoirs.
During the revolution, Reyshahri claimed to have discovered two abortive Coup d'état: the Nozheh coup, which was supposed to happen on July 8, 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 Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari during the interrogations.
Into his tenure as Minister of Intelligence falls the case of Mehdi Hashemi. Reyshahri executed Hashemi two days ahead of schedule on September 28, 1987, so that Reyshahri would not need to follow a letter written by Khomeini on September 28, in which he informed Reyshahri that the sentence had been commuted to internal exile. [1]
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. [2] Reyshahri was also an unsuccessful presidential candidate in the election on May 23, 1997, which led to the presidency of Mohammad Khatami. Reyshahri ranked fourth among the four candidates approved to run by the Guardian Council.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Nasser Moghadam |
Minister of Intelligence of Iran 1984-1989 |
Succeeded by Ali Fallahian |
| Directors of Ministry of Intelligence of Iran |
|
(1957–1979) Bakhtiar | Pakravan | Nassiri | Moghadam |