Request to Shahroudi: Return Anti-Money Laundering and Palermo Bills to Parliament

Forty members of parliament have written a letter to Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of the Expediency Council, requesting that the anti-money laundering and Palermo bills be returned to the parliament. This request comes after Ali Larijani, the Speaker of Parliament, sent these two bills to the Expediency Council. About two weeks ago, Larijani disregarded the opinion of the High Supervisory Board and directly sent the recent parliamentary resolutions to the Expediency Council. The protesting representatives have written to Hashemi Shahroudi, stating that they consider the Speaker's action to be contrary to Article 25 of the internal regulations of the Expediency Council. They have also stated that Larijani's action contradicts Article 112 of the Constitution and Article 202 of the internal regulations of the parliament. The letter states that this action is a precedent that undermines the credibility of the parliament and substitutes individual decisions for collective decisions of the representatives of the nation. The letter refers to Article 112 of the Constitution and Article 206 of the internal regulations of the parliament, which state that the Speaker cannot insist on a previous resolution of the parliament contrary to the law and on behalf of the relevant commission and the public session of the parliament alone. These two articles and legal provisions state that parliamentary resolutions must be approved by the Guardian Council, but in case of disagreement between these two bodies, the Expediency Council acts as the final arbiter. The signatory representatives of this letter have announced that "given the illegality of reviewing the mentioned bills in the Expediency Council, they demand the return of the mentioned bills to the parliament for legal procedures." They have also called on the members of the Expediency Council to adhere more closely to the law and resist illegal actions. Previously, 22 members of parliament had also called Larijani's recent letter to the Expediency Council "illegal," stating that it harms the credibility of the parliament. According to the laws of the Islamic Republic, parliamentary resolutions must be approved by the Guardian Council, but in case of disagreement between these two bodies, the Expediency Council acts as the final arbiter. However, in recent years, there has been a change in this process, and a 15-member group in the Expediency Council, known as the "High Supervisory Board," reviews parliamentary resolutions in light of the "general policies of the system." Although the final order to form this board was issued by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, in March 2014, this is the first time this 15-member group has directly commented on parliamentary resolutions. The disputed issue concerns two bills out of four that Hassan Rouhani's government sent to the parliament to satisfy the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The parliament approved both the "Anti-Money Laundering Law Amendment" and the "Palermo" bill and sent them to the Guardian Council, which announced about two weeks ago that the objections of the Guardian Council regarding these two resolutions had been resolved, but due to the "opinions of the Council," these two resolutions would be returned to the parliament. Ali Larijani, referring to the "lack of approval from the Guardian Council" and the "insistence of the parliament," sent these two resolutions to the Expediency Council. Larijani's emphasis on the "interests of the system" and his failure to refer to the "general policies" was a continuation of discussions that had been raised in Iranian media in recent weeks. While the struggles over the powers of the Supervisory Board continue, a member of parliament has stated that the status of this board is "higher than that of the Council." The members of the Supervisory Board consist of the head and secretary of the Council plus 13 others, including Ebrahim Raisi, Mostafa Mir-Salim, Ghorbanali Darin Najafabadi, Ahmad Tavakoli, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, Morteza Nabavi, Hossein Mozaffar, Ahmad Vahidi, Majid Ansari, Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam, Davood Danesh-Jafari, Ali Aghamohammadi, and Mohammad Javad Iravani.