Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Sayyid Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (, 15 August 1948 – 24 December 2018) was an Iranian Twelver Shia cleric and conservative politician who was the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council from 14 August 2017 until his death on 24 December 2018.

In 1974, Ayatollah Shahroudi was imprisoned by the Ba'ath Party, due to political activities related to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq

After the 1979 revolution, Shahroudi moved to Iran.

Ayatollah Shahroudi helped preserve the relationship between Ayatollah Khomeini and Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, as well as relaying the messages of Marja in Najaf to Ayatollah Khomeini.

Shahroudi's official English-language biographical information from the Iranian Assembly of Experts' website opens with his education received in Najaf, Iraq from Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, the Islamic Dawa Party Founder, and takes the view that al-Sadr was killed; al-Sadr was executed without trial by Saddam Hussein's regime in April 1980.

Hashemi Shahroudi became the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which caused objections to his serving as the Head of Iran's Judiciary.

He was a member of Iran's Guardian Council.

Upon accepting his position as the Head of Iran's Judiciary, Shahroudi proclaimed: "I have inherited an utter ruin from the previous judiciary," referring to Mohammad Yazdi's 10 years in office.

He appointed Saeed Mortazavi, a well known fundamentalist and controversial figure, prosecutor general of Iran.

Later when Mortazavi led the judiciary against Khatami's reform movement, Shahroudi was prevented by regime hardliners from stopping Mortazavi's violent acts against dissidents or removing him from power.

He was elected as a member of guardian council in 1995.

He was previously the Chief Justice of Iran from 1999 to 2009.

He was also an Iraqi citizen and a former member of the Islamic Dawa Party.

Then he was appointed the head of the Judiciary in 1999.

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.

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.

Rafsanjani had alienated Khamenei and the Islamic establishment with "his tacit support" for opposition to the controversial June 2009 presidential elections results that re-elected president Ahmadinejad.

Shahroudi denounced ISIL as a terrorist organization that commits the worst sins of killing people in the name of jihad.

Sharoudi had also denounced ISIL for wrecking the infrastructure of civilizations and countries, and for committing murder.

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 2010, he declared himself a Marja'.

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.

In July 2011 Shahroudi was appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to head an arbitration body to resolve an ongoing dispute between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the parliament.

He was a favorite as one of the potential successors of Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader of Iran.

According to one of his former alleged students, Shahroudi was considered among the wealthiest of Shi'i scholars in Iran, having amassed a substantial multi-million dollar revenue generating income from an export-import business.

In July 2011, Shahroudi was appointed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to head an arbitration body to resolve an ongoing dispute between president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the parliament.

The five-member body which Shahroudi headed is made up of "hard-liners known for their opposition to any reforms within the ruling system", according to the Associated Press news agency.

The appointment was seen as a move to sideline or weaken the past President of Iran Hashemi Rafsanjani who helmed the Expediency Council, a body set up to arbitrate disputes within the ruling system in the Islamic Republic.