By Reza Shafa

Mullahs' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated Sadeq Mahsouli to succeed Ali Kordan -- an infamous figure in the diploma-gate scandal -- as the next Interior Minister.

Mahsouli was among the most criminal commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with a long record in the suppression and murder of the people of East and West Azerbaijan provinces.

He was the IRGC commander for the country's Fifth Military District (East and West Azerbaijan), commander of the IRGC Sixth Special Expeditionary Division and for some time the IRGC's inspector-general.

As the city governor for Orumieh and deputy governor of West Azerbaijan, he played a major role in the suppression of anti-government uprisings in the province.

Aside from being Ahmedinejad's closest confident, Mahsouli was his commander while they both served as members of IRGC's hit squads in the 1980s and 90s with Ramadan Garrison -- located in west Iran across the boarder with Iraq. The unit's special mission was to assassinate Iranian dissidents abroad.

However, 1980s assassin turned businessman and made millions of dollars with the help of lucrative projects offered to him by the IRGC for his services to the mullahs' Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He has earned a nick name among his cronies as Brig. Gen. "billionaire." 

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Reza Shafa is an expert on the Iranian regime's Intelligence networks, both in Iran and abroad. He has done extensive research on Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) also known as VEVAK, Intelligence Office of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Qods Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.