The head of Iran’s judiciary says there is no such thing in the constitution as the “supervision of the Supreme Leader and his subsidiary bodies” by the Assembly of Experts.
The judiciary’s public relations office reports that at a meeting with senior judicial authorities, the head of the judiciary said on Monday December 14: “Sometimes the media reflect statements that are not true, such as the baseless statements about the supervision of the Supreme Leader and his subsidiary bodies.”
He said these interpretations are the result of “the illegal desires and expectations of a few” but he maintained they have no basis in the constitution.
“We have nothing in the constitution concerning supervision of the Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Larijani said.
He said that according to the constitution, the Assembly of Experts can decide on the “conditions or omission of conditions for eligibility of the Supreme Leader… so ‘supervision of the leader’ is a completely different issue and completely invalid.”
He said it is “unhealthy” to have such statements circulating in the run-up to the Assembly of Experts elections and he urged the media to refrain from repeating them.
Recently, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted as saying that the Assembly of Experts is responsible for monitoring the subsidiary bodies of the Supreme Leadership.
The Assembly of Experts is comprised of 86 senior members of the clergy who are elected for an eight-year mandate.
The next assembly elections are slated for March 2016.
