Iran’s ex-Intelligence Minister given judicial post

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 30 – Iran’s former Intelligence Minister was on Tuesday given a senior judicial post, a day after head of Judiciary called for speedy execution of criminals. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 30 – Iran’s former Intelligence Minister was on Tuesday given a senior judicial post, a day after head of Judiciary called for speedy execution of criminals.

Hojatoleslam Ali Younessi, who until August headed the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Iran’s secret police, was appointed by Judiciary chief Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as his new security counsellor.

In his decree, Shahroudi said that Younessi was appointed to the post because of his extensive background in intelligence and security matters.

Younessi became the head of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran and later head of the Politico-Ideological Bureau of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) soon after the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah.

In 1982, Younessi was appointed as the Religious Judge of the Military Revolutionary Tribunals. In 1987, he became the Representative of the Acting Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces at the Intelligence Directorate of the army, and was appointed a religious judge.

The summer of 1988 marked a turning-point in the mid-ranking cleric’s rise within the regime’s hierarchy. As one of the religious judges who implemented Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s fatwa to execute all “non-repentant” political prisoners, Younessi distinguished himself by presiding over one of the most ruthless tribunals, dispatching prisoners to their deaths after summary trials that barely lasted five minutes. Younessi’s performance in 1988 led to his promotion to one of the top slots in the Iranian regime’s judicial system and he soon became the head of the Judicial Organisation of the Armed Forces.

In 1999, he replaced another Shiite cleric, Dorri Najafabadi, as Minister of Intelligence and Security in the wake of the disclosure of the murder of dozens of intellectuals and dissidents by MOIS agents.

Younessi was succeeded as Intelligence Minister by Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezhei.

In a separate decree, Shahroudi also appointed Esmaeil Shoushtari as one of his counsellors. Shoushtari had been Justice Minister for the past 16 years.