Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Majority 970,192 (4th assembly) Name Mohammad Yazdii Movies Green Days | Preceded by Mahdavi Kani Appointed by Ali Khamenei | |
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VOA Persian, Mohammad YAZDI, 1, محمد يزدي
VOA Persian, Mohammad YAZDI, 2, محمد يزدي
Mohammad Yazdi (Persian: محمد یزدی, born 2 July 1931) is an Iranian cleric who served as the head of Judiciary System of Iran between 1989 and 1999. In 2015, he was elected to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts, defeating Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, by a vote count of 47 to 24.
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Career
Yazdi is a member of the Assembly of Experts and the Guardian Council. He served as the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran.
In 2009, Abbas Palizdar, a member of the Iranian Parliament's judicial inquiry and review committee, accused Yazdi of corruption and money laundering.
In the run-up to the February 2016 elections, Yazdi opposed bilateral relations with the United States. In the popular election held in February 2016 for Assembly of Experts candidates, incumbent Chairman Yazdi was not among the 16 experts who received enough votes to represent Tehran in the Fifth Assembly of Experts.
Many western media outlets pointed to Yazdi’s exit from the Assembly when providing emphasizing the gains that reformists made in the 2016 elections. In a speech congratulating those elected to the Fifth Assembly of Experts, Yazdi advocated for peaceful, moderate relations with other countries, but went on to warn about dealing with enemies and characterized America as "The Great Satan". Two days later, Fars News Agency reported the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei lamented the Assembly’s loss of Yazdi as Chairman and warned of the risk that the West could influence or infiltrate Iran. As of 9 May 2016, Yazdi remained on the Guardian Council, which vets potential candidates for the Assembly of Experts. During Yazdi’s tenure on the Guardian Council, human-rights organizations have criticized the Guardian Council’s disqualification of reform candidates in the 2016 elections.
Political career
After Khamenei became leader of the Iranian Republic, Ayatollah Yazdi served as the president of the Supreme Court. He remained in the post for many years before being replaced by Muhammad Hashemi shahreoudi.