The official website of former Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani has announced that the Guardian Council has rejected his candidacy for the upcoming elections of the Assembly of Experts, scheduled for March 1.
The website stated on wednesday, January 24, that the disqualification of the former President of Iran will also be officially announced through the Ministry of Interior.
Unofficial reports of his disqualification were circulated in domestic news agencies in Iran in recent days.
Hassan Rouhani, who is currently a member of the Assembly of Experts, has registered for candidacy in the upcoming elections for the Assembly.
A day before the announcement of Rouhani’s disqualification on his website, Nasrollah Pejmanfar, the head of the Article 90 Commission of the Parliament, had said that “in the previous government, Rouhani and his administration’s efforts were focused on resolving the country’s issues and problems through communication with the United States.” He also threatened to “publicize his dark dossier.”
Rouhani, who served as the President of Iran’s regime from 2013 to 2021 and whose previous government held the parliamentary elections under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior, has previously stated that after the November 2019 protests, the regime has crossed a line and that it is no longer important for high officials if participation in elections is low.
Throughout his more than 40 years in the government hierarchy, Rouhani has consistently held the highest positions in the regime. His resume includes five terms of presence in the Majlis (parliament), three terms (24 years) of membership in the Assembly of Experts, 16 years as the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and two terms (eight years) as President.
The Guardian Council also disqualified the candidacy of Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former security and judicial figure of the regime and former Minister of Justice, from participating in the elections for the Assembly of Experts.
The news of the disqualification of this regime official was published on January 24, hours after the news of Hassan Rouhani’s disqualification, the former President of Iran.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi was a member of the “Death Committee.” He was also the head of the Center for the Documentation of the Islamic Revolution, and a former Minister of interior. This is the second time he is being disqualified for candidacy in an election.
In the summer of 1988, following a fatwa issued by Rouhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, a four-member committee known as the “Death Committee” was tasked with reviewing the cases of thousands of political and ideological prisoners who were serving their sentences in prisons.
Pourmohammadi, along with the current regime’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, was a member of this committee. In 1988, they confirmed the death sentences of 30,000 political prisoners and handed them over to execution squads.
In 2019, in a video interview with the weekly magazine Mosaalas, he stated that he should not be held accountable for those executions and should not provide a legal answer. Instead, he said, “the Mojahedin (PMOI/MEK) should tried, and each of them should be dealt with individually.”
Most of the victims of the 1988 executions were members of the PMOI.
