Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Chief Justice of Iran
In office 30 June 1999 – 30 June 2009
Appointed by	Ali Khamenei
Preceded by	Mohammad Yazdi
Succeeded by	Sadeq Larijani
Chairman of the Assembly of Experts Acting
In office 21 October 2014 – 10 March 2015
Preceded by	Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani
Succeeded by	Mohammad Yazdi
Member of Assembly of Experts
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 February 1999
Constituency	Razavi Khorasan Province
Majority	1,324,986 (56.84%)[1]
Personal details
Born	(1948-09-01) September 1, 1948 Najaf, Iraq
Citizenship	Iranian and Iraqi[2]
Political party	Islamic Dawa Party[2]
Religion	Twelver Shia Islam
Website	Personal website

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (Persian: محمود هاشمی شاهرودی‎‎, born 1 September 1948) is a moderate^[3] Iranian politician and Shia Marja.^[4][5][6] According to Al-Monitor, he is also an Iraqi citizen and a member of Islamic Dawa Party.^[2]

Hashemi Shahroudi was the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has caused objections to his serving as the Head of Iran's Judiciary from 1999 until 2009. He is currently a member of Iran's Guardian Council.^[7]

Upon accepting his position as the Head of Iran’s Judiciary, Shahroudi proclaimed: "I have inherited an utter ruin from the previous judiciary.", referring to Mohammad Yazdi's 10 years in office.^[8][9] He appointed Saeed Mortazavi, a well known fundamentalist and controversial figure, prosecutor general of Iran. Later when Mortazavi lead the onslaught of the judiciary against Khatami's reform movement, Shahroudi was prevented by regime hardliners from stopping Mortazavi's violent acts against dissidents or removing him from power.^[10] In July 2011 Shahroudi was appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to head an arbitration body to resolve an ongoing dispute between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the parliament.^[11]

Appointment as Chief Justice

Prosecution of parliament members

In 2001, the judiciary prosecuted several reformist members of parliament for speeches and activities they had carried out in their capacity as MPs. The Iranian constitution grants immunity to members of parliament during their tenure, and the courts have no right to put MPs on trial for speeches given in parliament. The incident led to a major conflict between Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and Chief of Judiciary Hashemi Shahroudi. In a letter, Khatami protested the courts' prosecution of MPs, insisting the act contravened the political immunity which the Iranian Constitution has provided for the deputies. The notice prompted Hashemi Shahroudi to respond, calling Khatami's letter "a surprise." "Since judges, according to the Constitution and ordinary laws as well as the jurisprudential principles, are independent in their interpretation of the law and issuing verdicts, nobody -- not even the judiciary chief -- has the right to impose its interpretation of the law on judges," Shahroudi said in part of his letter to President Khatami.^[12] Shahroudi denounced reformist MPs, stating they weakened parliament by defending "westernized" journalists and other liberals.^[13] While the Iranian constitution does state in Art. 167 that judges need to adjudicate on the basis of Islamic sources in cases where no codified law exists, this was clearly not the case with regard to immunity of standing members of parliament. Shahroudi's commentary must be interpreted as being politically motivated, and is symptomatic of his failure to strengthen the rule of law during his tenure.

Decriminalization Bill

The decriminalization bill (in Persian: تعيين مجازات‌های جايگزين) refers to a legal bill submitted by the Iranian Judiciary to the parliament. It aims at substituting imprisonment and execution by educational workshops and social penalties. The bill is considered one of the most important legal bills prepared by the Iranian judiciary during Shahroudi's tenure.

According to the bill, for all minor crimes, whose punishment is less than six months of imprisonment, imprisonment will be substituted with social penalties. This category of crimes include crimes related to traffic, environmental, medical, family, cultural and hunting offenses. The bill also demands that criminals undergo an educational or skill training course convened by the judiciary system.^[14][15]

The bills also addresses the crimes conducted by minors in the three age categories 7-12, 12-15 and 15–18 years old. It is reminiscent to the Iranian criminal law of 1925. According to the bill, minors can no longer be executed. The bill is based on several years of continuous discussion with religious scholars at the seminaries.^[16][17]

According to the bill, the crimes conducted by children of 7–12 years old is not punishable. For the age categories 12-15 and 15-18, imprisonment is replaced by mandatory training and education programs. For the age category of 15-18, execution is applied for crimes like murders if and only if the judge is confident that the criminals are mentally developed as adults and the crime is conducted intentionally and with a well-thought-out-plan. However, both teenagers and young adults (older than 18) with low mental development, cannot be sentenced to death.^[18]

In 2009, the bill was approved by the judiciary commission of the Iranian parliament. The bill will be ratified after the approval of the parliament and the guardian council.

Shahroudi is most notable in the West for instituting Iran's 2002 moratorium on stoning as a form of capital punishment. The penalty remains on the books however, leaving open the possibility that the moratorium could again be overturned as it was in 2006 and 2007.^{[19][20][21][22]}

2009 Bill on Iran's Bar Association

In 2009, Shahroudi offered a bill to the Iranian parliament that targets the independence of Iran's Bar Association.^[23][24] According to this bill, lawyers will be watched by the Iranian ministry of Intelligence and their credentials depend on the approval of the intelligence service.

Restriction of media

In 2009, Shahroudi issued an order to restrict people's access to Iranian Satellite TV Channels and to prosecute staff of Satellite TV Channels whose opinion is not in line with that of the Islamic Republic.^[25] People who support these channels and internet users who act not according to the line of the constitution, can be punished with up to five years of imprisonment.

Current activities

In July 2011, Shahroudi was appointed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to head an arbitration body to resolve an ongoing dispute between president Ahmadinejad and parliament. The five-member body Shahroudi heads is made up of "hard-liners known for their opposition to any reforms within the ruling system", according to the Associated Press news agency.^[11] The appointment was seen as a move to sideline or weaken former President Hashemi Rafsanjani who heads the Expediency Council, a body set up to arbitrate disputes within the ruling system in the Islamic Republic.^[11] Rafsanjani had alienated Khamenei and the Islamic establishment with "his tacit support" for opposition to the controversial June 2009 presidential elections results that re-elected president Ahmadinejad.^[11]

Criticism

Shahroudi has received criticism from a number of Iranian scholars and lawyers. Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, a well known Iranian scholar and expert on Islamic law, wrote a letter of criticism in August 2009.^[26][27][28]

See also

• List of Maraji
• Iranian Criminal Code

References

External links

Quotations related to Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi at Wikiquote

Wikinews has related news: Iran typifies Islamic justice, says chief judicial official

• JUDICIARY BOSS TELLS PRESIDENT MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS
• Hashemi Shahroudi opposing President Khatami's actions
• The Moving Report on the Judiciary System, from Mohammad Ali Abtahi's weblog (in Persian)
• Shahroudi harshly criticized Iranian police and some hard-line judges (in Persian)