Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi Passes Away
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of the System, passed away on Monday, the 3rd of Dey, in Tehran after a prolonged illness. He was born and raised in Iraq but came to Iran after the 1357 Revolution and took on important responsibilities in the Islamic Republic.
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of the System, passed away at 22:03 on Monday, the 3rd of Dey 1397 (December 24, 2018) at the age of 70 in Tehran. He had suffered from a digestive illness for a long time and was hospitalized at Khatam al-Anbia Hospital due to the exacerbation of his illness in recent weeks.
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi was born on the 24th of Mordad 1327 in Najaf into a clerical family. He grew up in the same city and pursued religious studies there. He was one of the students of Seyyed Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and spent some time studying under Ruhollah Khomeini, and was considered a follower of the founder of the Islamic Republic.
After the fall of the monarchy in 1357, Hashemi Shahrudi came to Iran and became a liaison between the new Iranian government under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini and the clerics based in Najaf.
Following the onset of the Iran-Iraq War in 1359, at the request of the leaders of the newly established Islamic system in Iran, he established an organization called the “Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq” with the apparent goal of establishing an “Islamic Revolution” similar to Iran’s in Iraq. However, it did not produce results. The “Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq” was transformed into one of Iraq’s Shiite political parties after Saddam’s fall by removing the phrase “Islamic Revolution” from its name.
Hashemi Shahrudi joined the Guardian Council in 1373 and was appointed as the head of the judiciary in 1378. In this position, he replaced Mohammad Yazdi and at the beginning of his activity in this role said he had taken over “ruins” from Mohammad Yazdi.
After ten years of service as the head of the judiciary, he handed over his position to Sadegh Larijani. In Mordad 1396, after the death of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hashemi Shahrudi was appointed as the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of the System.
Shahrudi had simultaneously been a member and vice-chairman of the Assembly of Experts, a member and vice-chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of the System, and a member of the Society of Seminary Instructors in Qom, as well as an organization of conservative clerics in Qom, in recent years.
In Ordibehesht 1396, Shahrudi’s trip to Hannover, Germany for medical treatment generated considerable controversy. He had come to Germany at the invitation of Professor Samiei, an Iranian neurosurgeon and brain specialist. Coinciding with Shahrudi’s presence in Hannover, a number of Iranians residing in Germany gathered in front of a neuroscience clinic and staged protests.
The Iranian protesters accused Hashemi Shahrudi of active participation in the Islamic Republic’s “black file of human rights violations” and demanded that the German judicial system arrest and prosecute him. However, such action by the German judicial system would require the filing of a legal lawsuit by German citizens.
As protests escalated, Volker Beck, a member of the Green Party and former member of the German Parliament, formally filed a complaint against Mahmoud Shahrudi on charges of “murder” and “crimes against humanity.” However, Hashemi Shahrudi left Germany for Iran before this complaint was processed.
Hashemi Shahrudi’s physical condition deteriorated in recent months to the point that he could not participate in the Expediency Discernment Council sessions. The last time he attended a session of the Expediency Discernment Council of the System was on the 16th of Tir 1397.
Source: DW
