Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

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Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani : biography

25 August 1934 –

Assembly of Experts election

On 8 March 2011 Rafsanjani lost his post as chairman of the powerful Assembly of Experts, replaced by Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani. Rafsanjani stated that he withdrew from the election for head to "avoid division." The loss was said to be the result of intensive lobbying "in recent weeks" by "hardliners and supporters" of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and part of Rafsanjani’s gradual loss of power over the years., By AP / ALI AKBAR DAREINI, 8 March 2011 It was said that Rafsanjani will be dismissed as head of Expediency Discernment Council but he was re-appointed for another five years term on 14 March 2012 by Ali Khamenei.

2013 Presidential elections

Early life and education

Rafsanjani was born in the village of Bahraman near the city of Rafsanjan in Kerman Province to a wealthy family of pistachio farmers. from Radio Free Europe He has eight siblings. by Gareth Smyth, Financial Times His mother, Hajie Khanom Mahbibi Hashemi, died at the age of 90 on 21 December 1995.

He studied theology in the holy city of Qom with Ayatollah Khomeini, whose close follower he became.

Speaker of the Parliament

Rafsanjani was the Speaker of Parliament of Iran for 9 years. He was elected as the speaker in 1980 in the first season of Parliament after the Iranian Revolution. He was also chairman in the second season. After the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, he joined the 1989 presidential race and became the President, leaving Parliament.

Controversies

Accusations

The names of the victims appear in the commemorative plaque in front of Mykonos restaurant in Berlin

Rafsanjani is currently sought by the Argentinian government for ordering the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.

In 1997 during the Mykonos trial in Germany, it was declared that Hashemi Rafsanjani (the then president of Iran) alongside of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (supreme leader), Ali-Akbar Velayati (the then foreign minister) and Ali Fallahian (Inteligence Minister) has had role in assasination of Iran’s opposition activists in Europe.

Tension with Ahmadinejad

After his loss at the presidential elections in 2005, a growing tension between him and President Ahmadinejad arose. Rafsanjani has criticized Ahmadinejad’s administration several times for conducting a purge of government officials, slow move towards privatization and recently hostile foreign policy in particular the atomic energy policy. In return Ahmadinejad fought back that Rafsanjani failed to differentiate privatization with the corrupt takeover of government-owned companies and of foreign policies which led to sanctions against Iran in 1995 and 1996. He also implicitly denounced Rafsanjani and his followers by calling those who criticize his nuclear program as "traitors".

During a debate with Mirhossein Moussavi in 2009 presidential election, Ahmadinejad accused Hashemi of corruption. Hashemi released an open letter in which he complained about what he called the president’s "insults, lies and false allegations" and asked the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to intervene.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/world/middleeast/11iran.html?ref=aliakbarhashemirafsanjani&_r=0

Personal life

From his marriage to Effat Mar’ashi in 1962, Rafsanjani has three sons: Mohsen, Mehdi, and Yasser, as well as two daughters, Fatemeh and Faezeh. Only Faezeh Hashemi chose a political life, which led to her becoming a Majlis representative and then the publisher of the newspaper Zan (woman).

After presidency

Rafsanjani with General [[Ali Sayad Shirazi]]

In 2000, in the first election after the end of his presidency, Rafsanjani ran again for Parliament. In the Tehran contest, Rafsanjani came in 30th, or last, place. At first he was not among the 30 representatives of Tehran elected, as announced by the Iranian Ministry of the Interior, but the Council of Guardians then ruled numerous ballots void, leading to accusations of ballot fraud in Rafsanjani’s favor. Rafsanjani thus became a Majlis representative, but resigned before being sworn in. He explained that he felt he was "able to serve the people better in other posts".