Sayyid Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (, 15 August 1948 – 24 December 2018) was an Iranian Twelver Shia cleric and conservative politician who was the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council from 14 August 2017 until his death on 24 December 2018. He was previously the Chief Justice of Iran from 1999 to 2009. He was also an Iraqi citizen and a former member of the Islamic Dawa Party. Shahroudi's official English-language biographical information from the Iranian Assembly of Experts' website opens with his education received in Najaf, Iraq from Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, the Islamic Dawa Party Founder, and takes the view that al-Sadr was killed; al-Sadr was executed without trial by Saddam Hussein's regime in April 1980. Hashemi Shahroudi became the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which caused objections to his serving as the Head of Iran's Judiciary. He was a member of Iran's Guardian Council. Upon accepting his position as the Head of Iran's Judiciary, Shahroudi proclaimed: "I have inherited an utter ruin from the previous judiciary," referring to Mohammad Yazdi's 10 years in office. He appointed Saeed Mortazavi, a well known fundamentalist and controversial figure, prosecutor general of Iran. Later when Mortazavi led the judiciary against Khatami's reform movement, Shahroudi was prevented by regime hardliners from stopping Mortazavi's violent acts against dissidents or removing him from power. In July 2011 Shahroudi was appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to head an arbitration body to resolve an ongoing dispute between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the parliament. He was a favorite as one of the potential successors of Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader of Iran. According to one of his former alleged students, Shahroudi was considered among the wealthiest of Shi'i scholars in Iran, having amassed a substantial multi-million dollar revenue generating income from an export-import business. In 2010, he declared himself a Marja'. Early life Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi was born in Najaf, Iraq to ethnic Persian parents. His father, Ali Hosseini Shahroudi was a scholar and teacher at the Najaf seminary and Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi completed elementary schooling at Najaf's Alaviye school before going to seminary. Ayatollah Khomeini and Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr were his teachers in Najaf. When he came to Iran following the Iranian Revolution, he taught at Qom and Hassan Nasrallah, current Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary party Hezbollah, was one of his students. Political career Before