In a decree issued on Monday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei announced that donation of the Islamic Azad
University's properties for public purposes was unlawful.
During
inauguration ceremony of Azad University in Babol in September 2010,
Rafsanjani
emphasized that no one can intervene in
the endowment of Azad University: "I don't think God will allow
anyone to stop this endowment, and if someone can, God is stronger
than him and will one day take it back. We have many
endowments that were taken but subsequently returned."
Two groups made up of legal experts and jurisprudents were assigned to carry out
a thorough investigation into the case, Ayatollah Khamenei said in a letter to
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as chairman of the Supreme Council of the Cultural
Revolution (SCCR) and Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Board of
Trustees of the Islamic Azad University.
The final result was that such donation has "major legal and jurisprudential
problems," the Leader stated in the letter.
And the university's board of founders did not have the jurisdiction to make
such a decision, the Leader added.
The Islamic Azad University announced last year that it had endowed all
properties of the university. The move provoked strong protest by the
administration which had previously claimed the control of the university.
Afterwards, the Supreme Leader tasked the Judiciary with verifying the
compliance of the endowment with the law and sharia (Islamic law).
