Gholam Eje’i, Khamenei's Man Heads the Iranian Judiciary

With the appointment of "Gholam Hossein Mohsen Eje’i" as head of the judiciary in Iran in early July 2021, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dyed the regime's powers (judicial, legislative, and executive) in one color, all of them from the conservative current, which is described as "hard-line".

Gholam Eje’i, was not far from the judiciary, as he was its official spokesman, before he became the first deputy of its former president, Ibrahim Raisi, who became president of Iran after winning the elections that were held on June 18, 2021.

 

Security Minister

Eje’i, a cleric and politician, was born in 1956 in Aegean, Isfahan Province, central Iran, and studied at the Religious Hawza; In addition, he holds a master's degree in private international law.

Eje’i became famous when he was thirty years old by interrogating one of the most prominent founders of the Revolutionary Guards, Mahdi Hachemi, a relative of Ayatollah Montazeri, who was sentenced to death, and one of Hashemi’s charges was to expose the “IranGate” scandal regarding the visit of the Washington delegate, Mc Farlin, and an Israeli official to Tehran, for the Lebanese newspaper "Al-Shiraa" in 1986.

According to the deal concluded in this secret visit, American hostages were released in Lebanon, in exchange for providing Iran with Israeli and American weapons during the Iran-Iraq war.

Eje’i has held many positions in the security and judicial institutions for nearly four decades since the revolution in Iran in 1979 and the advent of the religious movement to power.

From 1985 to 1988, he was in charge of the recruitment department in the Ministry of Intelligence.

During the 1988 massacre (against thousands of Iranian opponents), he was a representative of the judiciary in the Ministry of Intelligence, and during the period between 1995 - 1997, he served as the special prosecutor of the clerics' court in Tehrane.

Eje’i became a public prosecutor for the clergy from 1998 to 2005, then Minister of Intelligence from 2005 to 2009, then the Attorney General until 2014, in addition to being the deputy head of the judiciary.

Eje’i is accused of "playing a criminal role in the uprisings that erupted inside Iran in 2009, 2017, and 2019, as a result of which he was included in the sanctions list by the European Union and the United States."

On April 13, 2011, the European Union imposed sanctions on 32 Iranian officials, including refugees, and according to these sanctions, they were prevented from entering the EU countries for their role in the massive and widespread violations of the rights of Iranian citizens, and among the sanctions “the confiscation of all assets of these officials in Europe ".

The US Treasury imposed sanctions on Eje’i on September 29, 2010, for committing " violations" of human rights, in particular, his involvement in the "repression of protests after the 2009 elections" known as the Green Movement, as well as confiscating his money in America.

 

Controversial

Eje’i is accused of issuing a fatwa on the killing of opposition leader Pirouz Dawani, who was killed during the political assassinations that took place during the era of former President Muhammad Khatami (1997-2005), which occurred to a number of journalists and intellectuals in the country.

Among the journalists, Dariush Forouhar, Muhammad Jaafar Bouinde, and Muhammad Mokhtari, known as the "serial assassinations", were later announced by the Ministry of Intelligence as responsible for these events, according to press reports on June 1, 2021.

As for the controversial situations, when he held the position of head of the Judicial Council for Government Employees, which often looks at a number of important issues, including cases of pressure on the press, and during one of the meetings with the Press Control Authority in 2004, he got into a quarrel with the representative of press directors, Issa Saharkhiz. He threw a bowl of sugar at him and bit his ear and shoulder.

During a meeting Eje’i held with Sharif University students in 2017, he witnessed wide echoes in the Iranian media, as he made a whistling sound from his mouth during the meeting.

Eje’i said on August 22, 2005, when discussing the performance of his ministry in the regime’s Shura Council: “I know in one way or another the anti-regime and revolutionary political currents that work to bring down the regime and disrupt it and I did not agree with them. However, this is a good background for me to work in the Ministry of Intelligence."

During the student uprising on December 7, 2009, Eje’i threatened citizens by saying, "As of today, we will not give any respite to those who disrupt the order and security of society."

He continued, "I also tell families to watch their children so that they are not deceived by foreigners or ambiguous slogans, and if they are deceived, the families will not complain and say, "My son was a student, so why was he arrested?" like executions."

Mohseni Ejei's whistle in a crowd of students

Khamenei's Man

The Iranian opposition accuses him of “having a long history of covering up crimes and the moral and financial corruption of the House of Leader Khamenei,” citing the cover-up of the scandal of Saeed Toosi, Khamenei’s special reciter regarding homosexuality and child rape, which was revealed in October 2016.

In this case, Eje’i threatened the media by saying: "The media should not publish cases that have not yet been judged and have not been definitively convicted, because this act is a crime and can be prosecuted."

He added, "Toosi's trial should not be public because the counter-revolutionaries are looking to exploit these cases," IRNA news agency reported on October 24, 2016.

The leader of the Iranian opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization, Maryam Rajavi, commented on Ejei's succession to "Raisi" in the judiciary by saying: "With Ejei's appointment, Khamenei completed the project of making the powers of his regime one color and establishing a (hard-line government) that he had started two years ago."

And she continued: "By excluding competitors and taking full control of the three authorities, Khamenei is trying in vain to delay the inevitable overthrow of his regime, but it only increases the anger of the Iranians. The heads of the three authorities (Raisi, Eje’i, Qalibaf) must be brought to justice for genocide and crime against humanity."