Iran's judiciary has named a cleric who was sacked as intelligence minister by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the Islamic Republic's top prosecutor, news agencies reported today.
Mr Ahmadinejad fired Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei last month, a move Iranian media linked to disagreement over the conservative president's choice of a new first vice president.
The official IRNA news agency said Mohseni-Ejei was picked as new general prosecutor in a meeting between new judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani and supreme court judges. He replaces Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi.
Mr Ahmadinejad last month outraged hardliners who had endorsed his re-election by appointing Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie's as first vice-president. Mr Mashaie has said Iran was friends with everyone, even the people of arch-foe Israel.
Mr Ahmadinejad was re-elected for a second four-year term in a disputed June presidential election, which plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed deep divisions within its ruling elite.
Some of Mr Ahmadinejad's conservative backers have abandoned him since the vote, even though he enjoys the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest authority.
Pro-reform opposition leaders say the presidential vote was rigged and see Mr Ahmadinejad's next government as illegitimate. The authorities reject such charges.
Reuters