Mohammad-Reza Rahimi

Mohammad Reza Rahimi (, born on 11 January 1949) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth first vice president from 13 September 2009 until 3 August 2013. His previous posts included governor of the Kurdistan province and vice president for parliamentary affairs.

On 15 February 2015, Rahimi was convicted of corruption and is currently jailed in Evin Prison. He was allegedly head of the "Fatemi Circle".

Early life and education Rahimi was born into a Kurdish Shiite family in a village, Serishabad, in Iran's Kurdistan province. He received a law degree from Tehran University. Rahimi is considered to be the second high-ranking member of Ahmadinejad's administration to have lied about receiving a PhD from Oxford University, the other being Ali Kordan. He has also claimed to have a PhD from Belford University, characterized as "just one of hundreds of diploma mills easily accessible online." Alef, an Iranian site that belongs to Ahmad Tavakkoli, published documents purporting to show fraudulent documents created by Rahimi.

Ahmadinejad named Rahimi as his vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs in 2008. He was appointed as the 5th first vice president of Iran on 13 September 2009 in a declaration by the president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and succeeded Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei who was in office for a short time.

He was acting president of Iran from 20 April 2011 to 1 May 2011 when president Ahmadinejad boycotted his official duties. He run for the presidency of Iran in the 2013 elections, but withdrew his candidacy in May 2013. After the election of Hassan Rouhani as the president, his term ended as first vice president.

Corruption charges

Indictment On 1 September 2014, Rahimi was sentenced to a prison term and a cash fine, convicted of yet unknown charges. The sentence needs to be finalized by a Court of Appeal for details of the indictment to be revealed. On 21 January 2015, Iran's supreme court sentenced Rahimi to five years and 91 days in prison and fined him to pay 10 billion rials. Rahimi was also ordered to pay a compensation equivalent to 28.5 billion rials.

Statements on Jews and illegal drugs At an international anti-drug conference held in Tehran with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on 26 June 2012, Rahimi delivered an antisemitic speech, at which at least 10 Western diplomats were present, blaming the Talmud for the spread of illegal drugs worldwide. Rahimi stated that the Talmud teaches "how to destroy non-Jews so as to protect an embryo in the womb of a Jewish mother" and that "Zionists" are in control of the illegal drug trade. He stated his "proof" is that there is not "one single Zionist who is an addict." The New York Times, which covered the conference marking a U.N.-sponsored International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, further quoted Rahimi as saying Zionists ordered gynaecologists to kill black babies and that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was started by Jews – although none, he was also quoted as saying, died in it. Rahimi's statements, which subsequently appeared on the official presidential website, were also broadcast by the Fars News Agency.

Responses Rahimi's remarks drew sharp criticism from the international community.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, stated that "Here is yet another example of the fact that anti-Semitism is a pillar of the Mullahocracy in Tehran...on a day when nations are supposed to set aside their differences to combat illegal drugs, the Iranian government continues to malign the Jewish people and its religious traditions – all part of their ongoing campaign of demonizing the Jewish people and dehumanizing supporters of the Jewish state." Abe Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, stated that "To all those who thought that anti-Semitism is a thing of the past, certainly this makes it very clear that it is alive and well again. What makes it more sinister and dangerous is the fact that it comes from a leader of a country that has vowed to destroy the Jewish state and is making efforts to obtain the means to do it."

John Baird, Canada's Foreign Minister condemned the remarks, stating that "Iran's ongoing use of UN forums to harass Israel and insult Jewish people around the world is completely unacceptable. Canada hopes the international community joins us in speaking out against, and utterly rejecting, such ridiculous and anti-Semitic assertions." Alistair Burt, the British foreign minister for the Middle East, stated that "We condemn utterly the baseless comments from Iran's vice president Rahimi about the Talmud and the Jewish faith, made at a United Nations drugs control event in Tehran this week. Racism and anti-semitism are unacceptable in any circumstance, let alone at an event sponsored by the United Nations. We call upon Iran to correct this scandalous statement, and to ensure that its officials respect the proper international norms and standards in the future."

Alun Jones, spokesman for the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, later stated that UNODC attended the Tehran conference as well as related events across the world on Tuesday, as mandated by the U.N. General Assembly, and that it could not anticipate what the Iranian hosts would say.

Naghmeh Sohrabi, a professor at Brandeis University, classifies Rahimi among "new guard" conservatives which came to mainstream political arena in 2005. She names Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei among the prominent figures of the faction. He was a member of the committee composed of 15 figures from different spectrum of conservative factions that planned establishment of the United Front of Principlists in 2008 elections. In November 2010, Rahimi was among 30 figures invited to a similar meeting of conservatives for 2012 parliamentary elections, although he did not attend.