Rafsanjani, Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi (1934– )

Iranian politician and cleric, president 1989–97. When his former teacher Ayatollah Khomeini returned after the revolution of 1979–80, Rafsanjani was a founding member of the Islamic Republic Party and became the speaker of the Iranian parliament and, after Khomeini's death, state president and effective political leader. He was regarded as a pragmatic conservative who was keen to avoid conflict with the USA. He was succeeded in 1997 by Seyyed Muhammad Khatami. In parliamentary elections in 2000 Rafsanjani failed to win a seat, while supporters of President Khatami and their reformist allies won a convincing majority. Following the pro-reformist election, it was disclosed that Rafsanjani was allegedly linked to government officials who had committed human rights abuses and executions of dissidents, intellectuals, and criminals during his presidency.

In June 2005 he failed in a bid to be elected state president again, but In September 2007 was elected chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body that selects Iran's supreme leader, and of the Expediency Discernment Council, which resolves legislative disputes among the different parts of Iran's parliament.

Born near Kerman, southeastern Iran, to a family of farmers, at 14 he went to study Islamic jurisprudence with Khomeini in the Shiite holy city of Qom and qualified as an alim (Islamic teacher). During the period 1964–78, he acquired considerable wealth through his construction business but kept in touch with his exiled mentor and was repeatedly imprisoned for fundamentalist political activity. His attitude became more moderate in the 1980s, and as president he normalized relations with the UK in 1990. He was re-elected with a reduced majority in 1993.