Ahmad Sayyed Javadi

Javadi was born into a devoutly religious family in Qazvin on 24 June 1917.{{cite news|title='Head Off This Brakeless Train': Haj Seyyed Javadi's Letter to Khamenei|work=PBS|date=29 January 2012|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2012/01/xxx-head-off-this-brakeless-train-haj-seyyed-javadis-letter-to-khamenei.html}} The members of his family were Shiite clergy and merchants. He received a law degree and a PhD in political science.{{cite web|title=Dr. Ahmad Sadr Haj Sayyed Javadi's Letter to the People of Iran|url=http://www.cssnd.com/nonviolent-news/369-dr-ahmad-sadr-haj-sayyed-javadis-letter-to-the-people-of-iran|work=The Center for the Study of Strategic Nonviolent Defense|year=2012}}

Javadi was the eldest of three brothers. One of his brothers, Ali, was a journalist who worked for Kayhan newspaper.{{cite news|author=Amir Taheri|title=Leading Iranian Writer Dies in Exile

|newspaper=Asharq Al Awsat|access-date=23 July 2021|date=2 July 2018|url=https://english.aawsat.com//home/article/1318051/leading-iranian-writer-dies-exile|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723061302/https://english.aawsat.com//home/article/1318051/leading-iranian-writer-dies-exile|archive-date=23 July 2021}} Another, Hassan, was also a journalist who served as the editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Ettelaat. He was the cousin of Ziaeddin Haj Sayyed Javadi, who was a member of the Majlis during the premiership of Mohammad Mosaddegh.

Javadi, along with Mehdi Bazargan, Yadollah Sahabi and Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani, founded the Liberation Movement (LMI; Nehzat-e-Azad-e-Iran) in 1961. He was appointed prosecutor of Tehran when Ali Amini was prime minister in 1961, and served for eighteen months. During the time in the office, he joined the anti-corruption judicial activism led by Noureddin Alamouti.{{cite book|author=Hadi Enayat|year=2013|title=Law, State, and Society in Modern Iran: Constitutionalism, Autocracy, and Legal Reform, 1906–1941|isbn=9781137282026|publisher=Springer|location=New York

|doi=10.1057/9781137282026}}

When the LMI was banned, Javadi became a member of the opposition group against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Javadi was one of the critics of Israel.{{cite web|author=Mahdi Ahouie|author-link=Mahdi Ahouie|title=Developments of Iranian Political Discourse on Israel: From Past to Present|url=http://en.merc.ir/default.aspx?tabid=98&ArticleId=314|work=Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies|access-date=10 February 2013}} In 1968, he stated "piety and spirituality have left our society. Instead our hearts have been filled with fear and darkness. We must struggle for justice and attempt to build a society that is modelled after madinah-ye fazeleh [the prelude to the ideal unitarian classless Islamic society]."{{cite book|title=From Zarathustra to Khomeini: Populism and Dissent in Iran|year=1990|publisher=Lynne Rienner|location=Boulder, CO|page=122|author=Manochehr Dorraj}} This view was the common sentiment among Muslim intellectuals of the period in Iran. For Javadi, the solution to the problems experienced in Iranian society was the creation of an Islamic society.

In 1977, Javadi was among the members and founders of the newly formed Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights.{{cite book|author=Houchang E. Chehabi|title=Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJEIQbUnGyYC&pg=PA231|year=1990|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-85043-198-5|page=231|location=Ithaca, NY}} He was also one of the lawyers of Mahmoud Taleghani together with Hasan Nazih in 1977.{{cite news|author=Muhammad Sahimi|title=The Nationalist-Religious Movement Part 2: The Revolutionary Era|work=PBS|date=31 March 2012

|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2012/03/the-nationalist-religious-movement-part-2-the-revolutionary-era.html}} He also defended Ali Khamenei, Ali Shariati, and Hossein Ali Montazeri during the Pahlavi era.{{cite web|title=Ahmad Haj Sayyed Javadi: 1917-2013|url=http://www.uskowioniran.com/2013/03/ahmad-haj-sayyed-javadi-1917-2013.html|work=Uskowi on Iran|date=31 March 2013}}

Following the 1979 revolution, Javadi contributed to the draft of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic. He was a member of the revolutionary council{{cite book|author=Barry Rubin|title=Paved with Good Intentions|year=1980|publisher=Penguin Books|location=New York|page=283|url=http://www.gloria-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Paved-with-Good-Intentions-final.pdf|archive-date=21 October 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021121704/http://www.gloria-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Paved-with-Good-Intentions-final.pdf}} and of the Islamic legislative assembly. He served as the Qazvin representative at the first Majlis from 1980 to 1984. Javadi was appointed minister of interior to the interim government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. He was in office as interior minister from 13 February 1979 to June 1979.{{cite book|author=Clyde R. Mark|title=Iran in crisis|url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL15450950M/Iran_in_crisis|publisher=The Library of Congress|date=15 September 1979|ol=15450950M }} He was succeeded by Hashem Sabbaghian in the post. In June 1979, Javadi was appointed justice minister when Assadollah Mobashery was resigned from the post.{{cite news|title=Khomeini averts Iran crisis

|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=29dHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_f8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=2147,3527792&dq=ahmed+sayyed+javadi&hl=en|newspaper=The Morning Record and Journal|date=21 June 1979|agency=UPI|location=Tehran}} Javadi's tenure lasted until November 1979 when the interim government resigned.

Javadi was cofounder of the Freedom Movement, an opposition group.{{cite news|title=Senior Iranian Activist Says Revolutionary Courts 'Illegal'|work=Payvand|date=7 September 2011|agency=RFE/RL|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/11/sep/1061.html}} He was a member of the central council of the movement.{{cite web|title=Shirin Ebadi's Report on Human Rights Situation in Iran in Tir 1391 [June-July 2012]|url=http://www.humanrights-ir.org/php/view_en.php?objnr=671|publisher=Defenders of Human Rights Center|date=23 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031136/http://www.humanrights-ir.org/php/view_en.php?objnr=671|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}

In 1985, Javadi was detained and tortured by Iranian security forces due to his criticisms about the arrest of the opposition figures. In 2001, when he was 81 years old, he was again arrested for his opposition activities. Javadi and other oppositional figures issued a statement against the death penalty for juvenile offenders in Iran in April 2009.{{cite web|title=Statement of a Group of Islamic Jurists, Lawyers and Social and Political Activists|url=http://www.humanrights-ir.org/php/view_en.php?objnr=242|work=Defenders of Human Rights Center|date=26 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110408055959/http://www.humanrights-ir.org/php/view_en.php?objnr=242|archive-date=8 April 2011|url-status=dead}} Javadi wrote a letter to Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, on 18 May 2011,{{cite web|title='Apologise, impeach Ahmadinejad, step down,' dissidents tell Khamenei|url=http://atimetobetray.com/blog/%E2%80%98apologise-impeach-ahmadinejad-step-down-dissidents-tell-khamenei/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 August 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130802211519/http://atimetobetray.com/blog/%E2%80%98apologise-impeach-ahmadinejad-step-down-dissidents-tell-khamenei/|work=A time to betray|date=31 January 2012}} and stated that Khamenei was "religiously and legally" responsible for the events in Iran, criticising Khamenei's support for Ahmadinejad. Next month he issued another letter addressing Iranians. In the letter, he apologized due to his function "in the founding of the government". In May 2012, Javadi and four other significant political activists, namely Hossein Shah-Hosseini, Azam Taleghani, Mohammad Bastehnegar and Nezamoddin Ghahhari, sent a letter to Ali Khamenei in which they expressed their concerns over the killings and arrests of the opposition figures in the country.{{cite news|title=Five prominent figures send letter to Supreme Leader|url=http://www.irandailybrief.com/2012/05/22/five-prominent-figures-with-a-history-of-religious-national-activism-send-letter-to-supreme-leader-calling-for-release-of-political-prisoners-to-prevent-threats-to-irans-national-security/|work=Iran Daily Brief|date=22 May 2012}}

In July 2012, Javadi was banned from traveling abroad by the government of Iran.

Javadi was awarded by the Association for Defense of the Freedom of the Press with the Golden Pen Award in 2009.{{cite web|title=Dr. Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi's Private Letter to Khamenei Disclosed|access-date=10 February 2013|url=http://www.cssnd.com/nonviolent-news/233-dr-sadr-haj-seyyed-javadis-private-letter-to-khamenei-disclosed|publisher=The Center for the Study of Strategic Nonviolent Defense}}

Javadi died aged 95 in Tehran on 31 March 2013.{{cite news|author=Arash Karami|title=Khamenei's Lawyer Passes Away|url=http://iranpulse.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/04/1698/iran-gives-michelle-obama-wet-gunpowder-award-for-argo/|work=Al Monitor|date=2 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404212400/http://iranpulse.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/04/1698/iran-gives-michelle-obama-wet-gunpowder-award-for-argo/|archive-date=4 April 2013|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|title=Longtime Iranian political activist dies|work=Payvand|date=31 March 2013|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/13/mar/1220.html|access-date=31 March 2013|archive-date=3 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103192108/http://www.payvand.com/news/13/mar/1220.html|url-status=dead}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Javadi, Ahmad Seyyed}}

Category:20th-century Iranian lawyers

Category:1917 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:Iranian anti-corruption activists

Category:Council of the Islamic Revolution members

Category:Freedom Movement of Iran MPs

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Category:Iranian prosecutors

Category:Members of the 1st Islamic Consultative Assembly

Category:Members of the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights

Category:Members of the Association for Defense of Freedom and the Sovereignty of the Iranian Nation

Category:Members of the National Council for Peace

Category:Ministers of justice of Iran

Category:People from Qazvin

Category:People of the Iranian revolution