Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
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| Chairman of Expediency Discernment Council | |
| In office 14 August 2017 – 24 December 2018 |
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| Appointed by | Ali Khamenei |
| Preceded by | Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani |
| Succeeded by | Sadeq Larijani |
| Chairman of the Assembly of Experts Acting |
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| In office 21 October 2014 – 10 March 2015 |
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| Supreme Leader | Ali Khamenei |
| Preceded by | Reza Mahdavi Kani |
| Succeeded by | Mohammad Yazdi |
| Chief Justice of Iran | |
| In office 14 August 1999 – 14 August 2009 |
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| Appointed by | Ali Khamenei |
| Preceded by | Mohammad Yazdi |
| Succeeded by | Sadeq Larijani |
| Member of Assembly of Experts | |
| In office 24 February 1999 – 24 December 2018 |
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| Constituency | Razavi Khorasan Province |
| Majority | 1,499,109 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 August 1948 Najaf, Iraq |
| Died | 24 December 2018 (aged 70) Tehran, Iran |
| Citizenship | Iranian and Iraqi |
| Political party | Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom Islamic Dawa Party |
Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (15 August 1948 – 24 December 2018) was an Iranian politician. He was the Chief Justice of Iran from 1999 to 2009.
Ayatollah Shahroudi was best known for ordering a moratorium on stoning as a form of the death penalty.
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Early life
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Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi was born in Najaf, Iraq to ethnic Persian parents. His father, Ali Hosseini Shahroudi was a scholar and teacher at the Najaf seminary and Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi completed elementary schooling at Najaf's Alaviye school before going to seminary. Ayatollah Khomeini and Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr were his teachers in Najaf. When he came to Iran following the Iranian Revolution, he taught at Qom and Hassan Nasrallah, current Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary party Hezbollah, was one of his students.
Political career
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After the 1979 revolution, Shahroudi moved to Iran. He was elected as a member of guardian council in 1995. Then he was appointed the head of the Judiciary in 1999. After Ayatollah Khamenei became leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Yazdi served as the president of the Supreme Court. He remained in the post for many years before being replaced by Ayatollah Shahroudi.
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 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 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. Shahroudi denounced reformist MPs, stating they weakened parliament by defending "westernized" journalists and other liberals.
Decriminalization Bill
The Decriminalization Bill (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 to have been 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.
The bill 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.
According to the bill, the crimes conducted by children of 7–12 years old are not punishable. For the 12-15 and 15-18 age ranges, 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 intentional and premeditated. However, both teenagers and young adults (older than 18) with low mental development, cannot be sentenced to death.
In 2009, the bill was approved by the judiciary commission of the Iranian parliament.
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.
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. People who support these channels and Internet users who do not act according to the line of the constitution can be punished with up to five years of imprisonment.
Political and social positions
- Chairman of the Expediency Council
- Member of the World Assembly of Ahl al-Bayt
- Member of the World Assembly for the Rapprochement of Islamic Religions
- Chairman and founder of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence on the religion of the Ahl al-Bayt
- Member and Vice President of the Assembly of Leadership Experts
- Member and Vice President of the Expediency Council
- Member of Qom Seminary Teachers Association
- Member of the jurists of the Guardian Council
- Head of the Judiciary
- Chairman of the High Board for Dispute Resolution and Regulation of the relations between the three powers
Death
Shahroudi died on 24 December 2018 from cancer in Tehran at the age of 70. A state funeral was held on 26 December in Tehran and he was buried at Fatima Masumeh Mosque in Qom.
See also
In Spanish: Hashemi Shahroudi para niños
