Judiciary says Education Ministry to decide on Kordan credentials
Published: Tuesday, August 19, 2008
11:00GMT—8:00AM/EST
INTERIOR MINISTRY – CREDENTIALS – INVESTIGATION
Washington, 19 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s Judiciary spokesperson, Alireza Jamshidi, today said that it was up to the Ministry of Higher Education to remark on the authenticity of the disputed academic credentials of Iran’s newly-confirmed Interior Minister, Ali Kordan.
Jamshidi, who was speaking this morning at a news conference, while noting that no complaint about the interior minister had been put forward, said that on the contrary, Kordan’s own complaint and that of the president’s deputy for legal matters, has been filed and is currently being reviewed in the prosecutor’s office, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
The Judiciary spokesperson then, while announcing that “the Education Ministry must give its opinion on the academic qualifications of the interior minister”, asked a reporter, who had questioned Jamshidi “about the forgery of the interior minister’s academic documents”, that when covering this news, he should “take care” that no one would be blamed for “charges that have not yet been confirmed by the judicial authorities”.
On Tuesday 5 August, after much deliberation and in spite of much opposition, Iran’s Majlis [parliament] gave Kordan a vote of confidence, while at the same time, a number of Majlis deputies raised questions about an honorary doctorate degree that Kordan said he received from the UK’s prestigious Oxford University.
The news website, Alef, which is affiliated with Ahmad Tavakkoli, the head of the Majlis Research Center, later published an article highlighting errors in his academic document.
Oxford University also told IranVNC by email that it had “no record of Mr Ali Kordan receiving an honorary doctorate or any other degree from the University.”
The complaints made by the president’s deputy for legal matters and Kordan about being “insulted and defamed”, were referring to media outlets such as Alef and individuals who raised doubts about the authenticity of Kordan’s honorary doctorate. This is because last week, the Interior Ministry, while confirming Kordan’s honorary doctorate, threatened “doubting media” with a legal pursuit.
At the same time, Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi, Iran’s minister of education, said that evaluating Kordan’s documents was contingent on the presentation of his “original documents”, and added that a letter to this effect had been sent to Kordan, asking him to send the originals to the ministry’s student affairs section,” Mehr News Agency reports.
Commenting on the fact that Oxford University had denied issuing an honorary doctorate degree to Kordan, Zahedi told Mehr: “If we want to follow everything based on news that is published on websites, we will surely not arrive at a scientific, precise and transparent answer.”
Mahmoud Mollabashi, the Education Ministry’s deputy in charge of student affairs, also said today that Kordan’s academic credentials were being reviewed.
Also today, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the executive board of the Assembly of Experts, noted that “the judicial apparatus must have the last word on the issue of Kordan.” He added that what was important was to see how the minister performs his duties, “because if he does a good job, we no longer need documents,” Borna News reported.
Sources: IRNA, Mehr News Agency, Asr-e Iran, Tabnak, Alef websites in Persian, Borna News in Persian
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.
(Original article written in Persian.)