Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha

Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha
Khoeiniha (right) and Mehdi Karroubi (left)
Leader of Association of Combatant Clerics
In office 20 June 2005 – 15 August 2010
Preceded by	Mehdi Karroubi
Succeeded by	Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur
Member of Parliament of Iran
In office 3 May 1980 – 3 May 1984
Personal details
Born	1942 Qazvin, Iran
Political party	Association of Combatant Clerics
Religion	Twelver Shi'a Islam

Ayatollah Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha (born 1942 in Qazvin, Iran) is an Iranian cleric and secretary general of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics. He was a founder of the now banned Salam newspaper and is a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.

Overview

Khoeiniha was prosecutor general of Iran after revolution. He has been accused of execution of many political activists without any trial during his term.^{[citation needed]}

He was the spiritual leader of the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line who led the hostage taking of American embassy staff on 4 November 1979. He is reported to have been "considerably to the left of the conservative mullah establishment" and also have had a less orthodox interpretive take on Koranic doctrine than them.^[1] Khoeniha remains a staunch defender of the embassy takeover, and still keeps "a four-drawer metal filing cabinet with a plate saying `Property of the General Services Administration,`" in his office, a souvenir taken from the embassy.^[2]

After the takeover he was named head of the Iran's Council of National Radio and TV but lost that post after hostage taking opponent Bani Sadr became president and engineered his resignation.^[3] Another post he is reported to have held was that of Deputy Speaker of the Majles in the early 1980s.^[4]

Khoeiniha and other "left-wing ... veteran revolutionary mullahs" from the Assembly of Militant Clerics founded Salam newspaper in 1991, after the Assembly members were not only banned by the conservative Guardian Council from running for the Assembly of Experts but could find no newspaper even willing to print that news and their protest. Despite its limited circulation and focus on influencing policy, the paper became very popular and helped elect reformist Muhammad Khatami president in 1997.^[5]

Salam was banned on July 7, 1999 for releasing "an alleged secret memo by a former intelligence agent, urging authorities to tighten restrictions on the press". This "triggering student demonstrations of a magnitude not seen since the 1979 revolution."^[6]

On July 25, 1999 the Special Clerical Court convicted Musavi-Khoeiniha as Salam's publisher, "of defamation and spreading false information in connection with the alleged memo". He was sentenced to three years in prison and a lashing. However, the court suspended this sentence and reduced his sentence to a fine of 23 million rials (US$13,000),^[6] "because of his sterling revolutionary credentials".^[2] Less than two weeks later the Clergy court "imposed a five-year ban on Salam and banned Musavi-Khoeiniha from practicing journalism for three years". The court ruled that the journalist was "guilty of disseminating untruthful and distorted news aimed at harming public opinion."^[6]

References and notes

1. ^ Bowden, Mark, Guests of the Ayatollah, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006 , p.13
2. ^ ^{a b} Bowden, Guests of the Ayatollah, (2006) , p.627
3. ^ Bowden, Mark, Guests of the Ayatollah, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006 , p.359
4. ^ Brumberg, Daniel, Reinventing Khomeini : The Struggle for Reform in Iran, University of Chicago Press, 2001, p.127
5. ^ Answering Only to God By Geneive Abdo, Jonathan Lyons
6. ^ ^{a b c} Attacks on the Press 1999: Iran

External links

• (Persian) Mousavi Khoeiniha: Before and after revolution

Party political offices
Preceded by Mehdi Karroubi	Secretary-General of Association of Combatant Clerics 2005-2010	Succeeded by Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur

Persondata
Name	Mousavi Khoeiniha, Mohammad
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1942
Place of birth	Qazvin, Iran
Date of death
Place of death