Mahmoud Alavi

For the commander of Iranian navy, see Mahmoud Alavi (military officer).

Mahmoud Alavi
Alavi in 2016
Special Aide to the President of Iran Head of the Council of Ethnic and Religious Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 November 2024
President	Masoud Pezeshkian
Preceded by	Abdolsalam Karimi as Advisor in the Affairs of Ethnic and Religious Minorities
Minister of Intelligence
In office 15 August 2013 – 25 August 2021
President	Hassan Rouhani
Preceded by	Heydar Moslehi
Succeeded by	Esmaeil Khatib
Member of the Assembly of Experts
In office 13 June 2009 – 20 May 2024
Constituency	Tehran province
Majority	1,706,855 (37.92%)
Member of the Parliament of Iran
In office 28 May 1992 – 27 May 2000
Constituency	Lamerd
Majority	45,876 (63%)[1]
In office 17 September 1981[2] – 27 May 1988
Constituency	Larestan
Majority	39,006 (62%)[3]
Personal details
Born	(1954-05-04) 4 May 1954 (age 70) Lamerd, Fars province, Imperial State of Iran
Political party	Resistance Front of Islamic Iran
Children	Mohsen,[4] Monireh
Alma mater	Ferdowsi University
Signature
Website	Official website
Military service
Allegiance	Iran
Branch/service	Islamic Republic of Iran Army
Years of service	2000–2009
Commands	Ideological−Political Organization

Seyyed Mahmoud Alavi (Persian: محمود علوی; born 4 May 1954) is an Iranian conservative politician who currently serves as the Special Aide to the President of Iran since 2024. He was formerly minister of intelligence in first and second government of Hassan Rouhani.

Early life

Alavi was born in Lamerd, Fars province, in 1954.^[5][6] He holds a PhD in Islamic jurisprudence and law from Ferdowsi University in Mashad.^[7]

Career

Alavi is a cleric and a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence.^[8][9] He holds the religious rank of Ayatollah.^[10] He is the former head of the political and ideological body of the Iranian Army to which he was appointed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.^[11] Alavi served in the post from 2000 to August 2009.^[8][12] In addition, Alavi was Khamenei's special representative in the army until August 2009.^[12] He also assumed the post of deputy defense minister.^[6]

He served at the Majlis as Tehran representative for four terms during the terms of former presidents Rafsanjani and Khatami.^[13][14] He ran for office in the list of Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution led by Mohsen Rezaee in the 2012 election.^[15] However, Alavi's nomination was rejected by the Guardian Council on the grounds that he did not have "practical commitment to Islam and the regime."^[15][16]

He is a former member of the Assembly of Experts.^[8][17] He served as Hassan Rouhani's liaison officer for the city of Qom and the institutions there in the 2013 presidential elections.^[18] Alavi was designated as intelligence minister by Rouhani on 4 August 2013.^[19] He was approved for the post on 15 August by the Majlis with 227 Yes votes.^[20]

Views

Ali Reza Eshraghi of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill argues that Alavi is a principalist politician in the Iranian political arena.^[16] He is, therefore, a conservative figure^[21] and close to Mohsen Rezaee.^[11] Alavi publicly criticized the Ali Akbar Rafsanjani's disqualification for the 2013 presidential election soon after the election.^[8]

Human rights violations

As Minister of Intelligence (July 2013 – August 2021) he perpetrated 6 human rights violations:

• He was responsible for the death of Saro Ghahremani, arrested during the January 2018 protests, and the arrest and coerced televised confession of Mohammad Ghahremani, Saro Ghahremani's father.^[22]
• He was responsible for the detention, torture and killing of protesters during the 2017-2018 protests, as well as the suspicious deaths of protesters in the custody of Intelligence Ministry agents.

The 2017-2018 nationwide protests, known as the December 2017 protests, were large-scale demonstrations to protest against inflation and corruption, which began on 28 December 2017 in Mashhad and several cities in Khorasan province and quickly spread across Iran, including with harsher anti-government slogans. The crackdown on protesters resulted in the deaths of at least 25 protesters and several detainees.^[23][24]

• He has been responsible for the pressure and mass detention of Baha'i citizens for their religious beliefs, including 17 Baha'i citizens who were arrested in three cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Karaj between September and October 2018.^[25]
• He was responsible for the arrest and torture of trade union activists, including Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian, and the suppression of peaceful protests by sugar cane workers in Haft Tappeh.^[26]
• He was responsible for the detention of civil society activists and the persecution and harassment of their families in 2018 to prevent them from speaking to the press.^[27]
• He was responsible for the killing and detention of protesters during the November 2019 protests, as well as threatening and pressuring their families to refrain from providing information to the press and holding memorial services.^[28]

References

1. "Parliament members". Iranian Parliament. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
2. نگاهی به سوابق هیأت وزیران و دولت یازدهم Tabnak
3. Profile on moi.ir
4. محسن علوی، فرزند وزیر اطلاعات، از حوزه انتخابیه لامِرد و مهر به مجلس رفت
5. Alfoneh, Ali (5 August 2013). "All the President's Men: Rouhani's Cabinet" (Policy Brief). Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
6. "Biography of proposed minister of intelligence". Islamic Republic News Agency. 5 August 2013. Archived from the original on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
7. "Rouhani's proposed cabinet line-up". Iran Daily. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
8. Pedram, Ali M. (8 August 2013). "Controversy surrounding new intelligence minister of Iran". Asharq Al-Awsat. London. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
9. "Iran's New President Rouhani Takes Oath of Office". Tehran: NPR. 4 August 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
10. "زندگی نامه | آیت الله دکتر سید محمود علوی".
11. Memarian, Jahandad (8 August 2013). "New Iranian Cabinet Nominees: Building Bridges Between Factions to Yield Reform". Huffington Post. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
12. "Sweeping Changes in Military and Intelligence Leadership". Rooz. 4 August 2009. Archived from the original (Report) on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
13. "Hassan Rouhani's New List of Ministers Unveiled". Haberler. 4 August 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
14. "Rohani's recruits". The Economist. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
15. Sahimi, Mohammad (28 February 2012). "Iran's Parliamentary Elections, Part II: The Role of the Military". PBS. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
16. Eshraghi, Ali Reza (7 August 2013). "Iran's proposed cabinet: The old guard is back in charge". CNN. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
17. "Former nuke negotiator joins Iran presidential race". The Jerusalem Post. Dubai. Reuters. 11 April 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
18. "Rouhani's Cabinet Seeks New Balance in Iranian Policies". Iranian. August 2002. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
19. Aneja, Atul (4 August 2013). "Rouhani formally sworn in as Iran's President". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
20. "Iranian Parliament Gives Vote of Confidence to Majority of Rouhani's Proposed Ministers". Fars News. 15 August 2013. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
21. Randjbar Daemi, Siavush (8 August 2013). "In Iran, Rowhani's first cabinet strikes a complex balance". The Conversation. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
22. "Orwellian State: The Islamic Republic of Iran's State Media as a Weapon of Mass Suppression", FIDH & JFI, 25 June 2020
23. ""Parvaneh Salhshouri, Member of Parliament, on the role of the Ministry of Intelligence in detaining students", Jame'e No, 2018" (PDF).
24. "Iranian Officials Confirm 25 Dead in Protests, VOA News, 14 Jan 2018".
25. ""Detention of 17 Baha'i Citizens in Three Iranian Cities in Less than a Month", Iran Human Rights Campaign, October 24, 2016". 26 January 2023.
26. ""Ismail Bakhshi: I was tortured to death", Radio Zamaneh, February 2017".
27. "Iran: Activists' Families Facing Harassment, Human Rights Watch, 9 Aug 2018". 9 August 2018.
28. "Shoot to Kill:Preliminary Findings of Justice For Iran's Investigation into the November 2019 Protests, February 2020, p 13" (PDF).

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Heydar Moslehi	Minister of Intelligence and National Security 2013–2021	Succeeded by Esmaeil Khatib