Mohammad Reza Rahimi

Mohammad Reza Rahimi (Persian: محمدرضا رحيمی, born on 11 January^{[citation needed]} 1949) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth first vice president from 13 September 2009 until 3 August 2013. His previous posts included governor of the Kurdistan province and vice president for parliamentary affairs.

On 15 February 2015, Rahimi was convicted of corruption and is currently jailed in Evin Prison. He was allegedly head of the "Fatemi Circle".

Rahimi was born into a Kurdish Shiite family in a village, Serishabad, in Iran's Kurdistan province. He received a law degree from Tehran University. Rahimi also claims to hold a PhD from Oxford University but no record of his name has been found in the university and also this claim has been vastly disputed by many Iranian sources. Rahimi is considered to be the second high-ranking member of Ahmadinejad's administration to have lied about receiving a PhD from Oxford University, the other being Ali Kordan. He has also claimed to have a PhD from Belford University, characterized as "just one of hundreds of diploma mills easily accessible online." Alef, an Iranian site that belongs to Ahmad Tavakkoli, published documents purporting to show fraudulent documents created by Rahimi.

Rahimi worked as a public prosecutor in Qorveh and Sanandaj. He headed the city council of Sanandaj, too. During this period, he taught law at the school of law at Tehran Azad University and served as head of the school for a short time.

Rahimi was elected as member of the Parliament of Iran from his province of birth Kurdistan in Legislative election of 1980 as a member of Islamic Republican Party. He was in Parliament until 1992 when he resigned from his seat. He held many positions when he was an MP such as head of arts commission and a member of foreign policy commission. Then he was appointed governor of the Kurdistan Province in August 1993 by then-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and was in office until August 1997 when Mohammad Khatami was elected as new president and named new governors. Rahimi was not in Khatami's list of governors. During his governorship, he firstly met Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

Ahmadinejad named Rahimi as his vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs in 2008. He was appointed as the 5th first vice president of Iran on 13 September 2009 in a declaration by the president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and succeeded Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei who was in office for a short time.

He was acting president of Iran from 20 April 2011 to 1 May 2011 when president Ahmadinejad boycotted his official duties. He run for the presidency of Iran in the 2013 elections, but withdrew his candidacy in May 2013.^{[citation needed]} After the election of Hassan Rouhani as the president, his term ended as first vice president.

Based on the claims of at least two members of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis), Rahimi was the head of a corruption band that became known as Fatemi Circle. This circle had an office in Fatemi street in Tehran. Naderan, a member of Majlis who is close to Ahmad Tavakkoli, has criticized the judicial system for not arresting him. Motahari, another member of Majlis, has asked Ahmadinejad to cooperate with judicial system on this issue and called the accusations serious.