Ebrahim Raisi's presidency of the judiciary "confirmed"
Gholamreza Mohseni Ejei said in a weekly press conference that he is indebted to the system and will help the new head of the judiciary, Mr. Raisi. A member of parliament also announced that Ebrahim Raisi will be introduced on March 8.
On Sunday, March 3, the spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, in response to the question of whether he would continue to work in this institution in the new term, said: "I am a servant indebted to the system and must serve the system, and I will definitely help the new head of the judiciary, Mr. Raisi, and the judiciary in the next term."
He added that "Perhaps Mr. Raisi will choose someone else to be the spokesperson, so whether it's me or not, I apologize for all the shortcomings that have occurred." In his next explanation, Ejei stated: "If I'm alive, I'll be in the judiciary, so don't worry."
The appointment of Ebrahim Raisi as head of the judiciary had been unofficially discussed for some time, but Ejei had evaded responding to the possibility of this appointment in previous meetings.
Sadegh Amoli Larijani, the current head of this body, has been appointed head of the Expediency Discernment Council by Khamenei's decree, succeeding Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi.
Yahya Kamalipour, a member of the Parliament's Judicial Commission, has also said that Raisi will replace Sadegh Larijani on March 8.
Ebrahim Raisi was the main candidate of the conservatives in the 2017 presidential election. He won 38% of the vote in the race against Hassan Rouhani.
Raisi, 59, is the son-in-law of Ahmad Alam-ul-Huda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, and is the governor of Quds Province. He was previously the prosecutor of Karaj, deputy prosecutor of Tehran's Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office, head of the country's General Inspection Organization, and became a member of the Expediency Discernment Council in August 2017.
Raisi is identified as one of the perpetrators of the killing of political prisoners in the 1960s. Survivors of executions during this period have testified that he was a member of the “death committee” in the summer of 1988. Ebrahim Raisi says he had no responsibility in this regard.
In 2017, Ahmad Montazeri, son of Ayatollah Montazeri, called Ebrahim Raisi's candidacy for the presidential election an insult to the Iranian nation and said: "His direct and undisputed participation in the summer of 2018 massacre is a very important issue. If one of the candidates has attacked someone with a knife once, he will not be able to obtain a certificate of no criminal record from the legal authorities. His duty is completely clear."
Source: DW
