Profile: Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Former Minister of Interior Affairs, Justice

By Press TV Website Staff

Iran’s 12-member election supervisory body, the Constitutional Council, after a week-long vetting process approved six candidates on Saturday to run in the June 28 presidential election.

Among the approved candidates is Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a senior Iranian political figure who has previously held significant roles in the judiciary and top cabinet positions.

Pourmohammadi served as the Minister of Interior Affairs (2005-2008) and as the Justice Minister (2013-2017) in two different administrations.

Following President Ebrahim Raeisi’s martyrdom in a tragic helicopter crash on May 19, Iran is set to hold a snap presidential election on June 28, one year earlier than expected.

The approved candidates will have two weeks for campaigning before the polling takes place.

Pourmohammadi, a 64-year-old political stalwart and a well-known figure in Iran’s political circles, is the only cleric running for the country’s presidency.

Born in December 1959 in the central Iranian city of Qom, he studied Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh), principles of jurisprudence, and philosophy at the Qom seminary.

He later completed a level four degree in jurisprudence and Islamic law, equivalent to a PhD.

Pourmohammadi has authored several books and articles on legal rights and the theoretical foundation of political thinking in Islam. 

From 1979 to 1986, he served as the prosecutor of the revolutionary courts in the provinces of Khuzestan, Hormozgan, and Khorasan.

From 1986 to 1987, he was the prosecutor of the armed forces revolutionary courts in western Iran.

In 1987, he began serving at the Ministry of Intelligence, holding various positions, including advisor, head of the foreign service, and deputy minister.

His term as the deputy intelligence minister ended in 1999.

Since 1996, Pourmohammadi has also been a member and head of the board of trustees of the Center for Islamic Revolution Documents, a research institution founded in 1981 that collects and maintains documents related to Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and history.

He became a lecturer in political sciences at Imam Sadiq University in Tehran in 2000.

The veteran political figure was appointed by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, as the head of the political and social department of his office in 2003.

In 2005, he was appointed as the country’s interior minister, leaving office in 2008 following a cabinet reshuffle. He then became the head of the National Inspection Organization (GIO), a position he held until 2013.

GIO, linked to the judiciary, is tasked with “supervision of the proper conducting of affairs and the correct implementation of laws by the administrative organs of the government” according to Iran’s constitution.

In 2013, he became the justice minister and held that portfolio for four years. Currently, he serves as advisor to the head of the judiciary and is also the secretary general of the Association of Combatant Clerics, a political party founded in 1988.

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