Hassan Khomeini protests dismissals and appointments at Azad University; Rouhani intervenes
A month after the dismissal of Hamid Mirzadeh as president of Azad University, Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, wrote a letter to the President of Iran, calling the change of the president of Azad University illegal and calling for Hassan Rouhani's intervention.
According to Iranian domestic news agencies, Hassan Khomeini, who is a member of the founding board and the board of trustees of Azad University, in a letter written in early June and published on Monday, June 28, considered Mr. Mirzadeh's dismissal to be suspiciously illegal and said that the appointment of his successor was also carried out without a vote in the Azad University's board of trustees.
Following the death of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Founding Board of Islamic Azad University, the Leader of the Islamic Republic appointed Ali Akbar Velayati as Chairman of the Founding Board, and a short time later, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Azad University elected Mr. Velayati as Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Changes at Azad University began after Mr. Velayati was elected, and finally on May 23, it was announced that in an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Trustees, Ali Mohammad Noorian had been elected as the superintendent of Azad University, replacing Hamid Mirzadeh.
The Board of Trustees had suggested that Mr. Mirzadeh resign from his position, but after Mr. Mirzadeh opposed the resignation, he was dismissed.
Mr. Mirzadeh, who has been at the Islamic Azad University since 2007, became the president of the university in 2013 with the vote of six members of the board of trustees of the Islamic Azad University, including Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hassan Khomeini, Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, and Jafar Tofighi. In November of the same year, he officially assumed the presidency of the Islamic Azad University with the vote of the members of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.
With Mr. Velayati's arrival at Azad University, the gradual changes at the university finally reached Mr. Mirzadeh, and he was also dismissed. On Sunday, June 27, it was also reported that Yaser Hashemi, the son of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had been dismissed from the office of the Board of Trustees of Azad University.
Now, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini has considered the change in the president of Azad University to be suspiciously illegal and has asked Hassan Rouhani, who also heads the Cultural Revolution Council, to intervene in the matter.
Islamic Azad University was established in 1982 at the suggestion of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and with the support of Ayatollah Khomeini.
The university expanded rapidly in the 1970s, establishing branches in small cities.
The financial value of the Free University is estimated at around forty trillion tomans.
Source: Voice of America
