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Ali Kordan

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Ali Kordan
Iranian Minister of the Interior
In office
August 12, 2008 – November 04, 2008
Preceded byMostafa Pour-Mohammadi
Deputy oil minister
In office
October, 2007 – August 12, 2008

Ali Kordan (identified as EvazAli Kordan by his original birth certificate)[citation needed] is an Iranian conservative politician who was the interior minister of Iran for 90 days. He was approved for this position as of August 5, 2008 by the Iranian Parliament and he was expelled from the post on 4th of November 2008 due to dishonesty, corruption and moral issues. Kordan is a former deputy oil minister with previous service in the judiciary and the Revolutionary Guards.[1]

Career

Kordan was appointed deputy oil minister in around October 2007. He had turned down the offer of the same position in 2006.[2]

He had previously served as deputy labour minister, president of Iran's Technical and Vocational Organization, deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) for provincial and parliamentary affairs, deputy head of IRIB for administrative and financial affairs, and deputy minister for culture and Islamic guidance for administrative and financial affairs.[2]

Degree controversy

Kordan claimed to have an honorary doctorate in law from Oxford University. However his academic qualifications and doctorate have been widely questioned by Iranian parliament members and the media.[3] Immediately following his appointment as the Interior Minister, the Ministry threatened the media in an official announcement, urging them to avoid writing about Kordan's academic degree.[citation needed]

Kordan later released a copy of his degree showing an Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree that was conferred on him in June 2000 and was under-signed by three Oxford University professors. The certificate was clumsily worded and punctuated, saying that Kordan was granted the degree "to be benefitted from it's scientific privileges", and "entitled" was spelt "intitled".[4] The spelling of "entitle" as "intitle" in the degree was used by some commentators as being indicative of the degree being bogus (i.e. issued by a diploma mill),[5] but the word "intitle" is an obsolete spelling of "entitle".[6]

Responding to an inquiry by Alef news agency, on August 11 2008 Oxford University denied it had awarded Kordan an honorary doctorate of law or any other degree from the university. The University of Oxford published an official statement on its website that they have no record of Mr Ali Kordan receiving an honorary doctorate or any other degree from the University [7] It noted that none of the professors whose alleged signatures were on the certificate were working in the field of law, and none of them would sign degree certificates.[4][8][9] As a result, chairman of Iranian parliament Ali Larijani initiated an investigation into the validity of Kordan's degree.[4][10]

On August 12, 2008 President Ahmadinejad appointed Mr Ali Kordan as the Minister of Interior. It was reported that Alef News Website (Alef.ir), which was pursuing the authenticity of the alleged "certificate", had been blocked by the Iranian "authorities".[11]

On August 15, 2008 University of Oxford published their statement about Mr. Ali Kordan on their web page stating that "The University of Oxford has no record of Mr Ali Kordan receiving an honorary doctorate or any other degree from the University.".[12] This statement confirmed their earlier reply to Alef website.

As of August 27, 2008, The Ministary of Science, Research and Technology of the Islamic Republic denies announcing any statement on Kordan's Doctorate Degree.".[12]

In a letter to the president on September 27, 2008, Ali Kordan has admitted to holding a fake Oxford University degree which he thought was valid, coming clean after weeks of controversy. In the letter, he said he had pressed charges against the person who claimed to represent Oxford University in Tehran as soon as he realised his degree was fake. "Over the past eight years, I never doubted the validity of the degree and that's why I presented it in the course of the confidence vote," Kordan wrote in his letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Kordan said his search for the intermediary had proven fruitless and that he had filed a complaint against the unnamed person on September 14. [13]

Moral charges

Kordan is believed to have been arrested in 1978 after he was accused of seducing a girl with false marriage promise and he was jailed for more than two months. However he was released after the revolution.[14][15]

Financial corruption

During his post as the deputy head of IRIB in financial affairs, Ali Kordan was accused of a high profile financial corruption (525 billion Tomans). However the Judiciary system did not charge him after a long investigation.[citation needed]. Also Kayhan newspaper published an article accusing Kordan of his corruption concerning "The Crescent file".

impeachment

There were 188 votes for impeachment, 45 against and 14 abstentions. Iran's parliament on Tuesday voted to sack Interior Minister Ali Kordan for lying about his credentials and presenting a fake degree from Oxford University.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said 188 MPs among the 247 present voted to impeach Kordan while 45 lawmakers were against the motion and 14 abstained

References

  1. ^ "Iran parliament approves new reshuffle". Agence France-Presse. 2008-08-05. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  2. ^ a b Amanat, Reza (2007-10-11). "Ali Kordan Appointed Iranian Deputy Oil Minister".
  3. ^ "Majlis Confirms 3 Ministers". Tehran Times. 2008-08-06. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  4. ^ a b c "Iranian minister's Oxford degree a fake". MSNBC. 2008-08-13.
  5. ^ "Many obvious errors in Kordan's Oxford honorary doctorate certificate" (in Persian). Asr Iran. 2008-08-10. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  6. ^ This fact is recorded both by the The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (5th edition, 2002), and the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, 2004). The latter dictionary provides numerous examples in which the word intitle is used in the meaning of entitle, such as "With how much Justice it is intitled to such a Name." (1695), or "A higher rank in the temple of fame than either his talents or performances intitle him to hold." (1769).
  7. ^ "Statement from the University of Oxford" (in Persian). Alef. 2008-08-11. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
  8. ^ "The Ministry of Interior: Skepticism about Kordan's degree is forbidden" (in Persian). Radio Zamaneh. 2008-08-08. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  9. ^ "The parliament investigates the authenticity of Kordan's degree" (in Persian). BBC Persian. 2008-08-011. Retrieved 2008-08-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "به دستور لاريجاني مجلس در مورد اصالت مدرك تحصيلي وزير كشور تحقيق مي‌كند" (in Persian). IRNA. 2008-08-11. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
  11. ^ "Iranian minister exposed with fake Oxford degree". The Daily Telegraph. 2008-08-13. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  12. ^ a b "Statement: Mr Ali Kordan". The University of Oxford. 2008-08-15. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
  13. ^ "Iran minister admits holding fake Oxford degree". Yahoo News. 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
  14. ^ "سوابق اخلاقي". Rooz online. 2008-08-14. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  15. ^ "تصویر سند بازداشت عوض علی کردان به اتهام ازاله بکارت" (in Persian). Peykeiran. 2008-08-18. Retrieved 2008-08-18.

See also

Preceded by Interior minister of Iran
2008-now 		Succeeded by
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