On Sunday, August 8, Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, elected Gholam-Hossein Ismaili, a spokesman for the judiciary, as his chief of staff. Gholam-Hossein Ismaili must now play the role of head of the chief office. It seems that Ebrahim Raisi is trying to gather all the criminals who have a long history in the judiciary and security institutions.
Gholam-Hossein Ismaili was born in 1965 in Birjand. It is claimed that Ismaili received his doctorate in private law from Tarbiat Modares University in 1999. It is said that he started his seminary education in 1994 and in 2000, he was introduced as the best researcher in the country.
Not much is known about Ismaili’s record over these years and his role in repression. But as soon as this part is neglected in his records, one can guess what role he played. And no one in this regime can reach high ranks without being involved in the suppression of the people and being loyal to the regime’s devastating policies, dissidents say.
Before chairing the Iranian Prisons Organization, he was the Public Prosecutor of Mashhad. From 2009 to May 2014, he was the head of the Prisons Organization.
When he was the head of the Prisons Organization, Sadegh Larijani, the head of the Judiciary, unexpectedly fired him after reports of the beating of prisoners in Ward 350 of Evin Prison by security officials and prison guards. He tried to deny this event, but finally, he was replaced with Ali Asghar Jahangir, the former head of the judiciary’s intelligence service.
As a spokesman for the judiciary, he held this important responsibility since April 10, 2019. He was appointed as the head of the president’s office by Ebrahim Raisi on August 8, 2021.
On April 12, 2011, the European Union imposed sanctions on Gholam-Hossein Ismaili for widespread and severe violations of the rights of Iranian citizens. Under the embargo, he will not be allowed to enter EU countries and his assets will be frozen in those countries.
According to an EU statement, Gholamhossein Ismaili, as head of the Prisons Organization, was involved in detaining political protesters and covering up human rights abuses in prisons.
He committed blatant human rights abuses when he headed the Prisons Organization. Many families of prisoners testified that they had seen the traces of beatings and torture on the bodies of their relatives. But Gholam-Hossein Ismaili denied the violent treatment with the prisoners.
He is also accused of using non-prison agents to search prisoners’ belongings, which is one of his offenses. Ismaili insisted on denying the violent treatment of prisoners by appearing on state TV. The screening of this film met with a widespread reaction from the families of the prisoners and users of Persian-language virtual networks, who believed that there was no one as a witness to substantiate the statements of the head of the Prisons Organization.
It has been said that he is involved in big corruption cases. Akbar Tabari, the former executive deputy of the judiciary, in his defense called for Gholam Hossein Ismaili’s presence, when he was the spokesman of the judiciary, to his court as, “directly responsible for the Lavasan Clack case and a close friend of Judge Mansouri.”
In a factional dispute, it was revealed that he as the then Chief Justice of Tehran Province, had announced the order of the then Chief Justice of the Judiciary regarding the Lavasan Clack case.
The conversion of agricultural lands to residential which is 1 million square meters of land in the Lavasan Clack region for settlement is an issue that began in 2003 and is continuing. The case of this transfer has been reviewed several times by the judiciary, the Supreme Leader’s Inspection Office, and the National Inspection Agency. But it remained unresolved because of the involvement of key judicial officials.
