TEHRAN – A funeral ceremony was held on Saturday morning at Tehran’s historic Ark Mosque for Hojjatoleslam Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, a long-serving and senior figure in Iran’s judiciary, who passed away on April 3 following a lengthy illness.

The ceremony drew the presence of top-ranking officials, including Judiciary Chief Hojjatoleslam Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, along with a number of other senior judicial and government figures, and members of Nayyeri’s family. 

Nayyeri held numerous high-profile judicial posts over the course of his career, including serving as the head of the Special Courts responsible for implementing Article 49 of the Constitution, president of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges, and most recently, as a senior advisor to the head of the Judiciary.

In recent days, his passing was marred by the circulation of unfounded claims on social media alleging that Nayyeri had succumbed to injuries sustained during the January 18 terrorist attack at the Supreme Court, an incident that resulted in the martyrdom of Hojjatoleslams Mohammad-Reza Raazini and Mohammad Moqiseh. However, these rumors were swiftly and decisively rejected by the Judiciary's official media center, which issued a statement on January 18 confirming that Nayyeri was not present at the scene of the attack and had not been harmed in any way. 

In response to the passing of Hojjatoleslam Nayyeri, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, issued a message of condolence. 

The Leader offered his sympathy to Nayyeri’s family, friends, and colleagues, recognizing his significant contributions to the Judiciary since the early days of the Revolution. Nayyeri was also honored as the brother of two esteemed martyrs. Ayatollah Khamenei prayed for divine mercy upon the late judge.

Hossein-Ali Nayyeri was born in 1956 in one of the cities of Iran’s northern Gilan Province. He began his religious education at a young age at the Qom Seminary, where he studied under several prominent clerics, most notably Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Nayyeri joined the ranks of the judiciary, emerging from the Haqqani Seminary—an institution that produced many of the Islamic Republic's judicial and political elite.

His formal entry into the judicial system came in 1980, when he was recommended by Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, the then-head of the Supreme Judicial Council. Nayyeri was appointed as a Sharia judge at Evin Prison, a facility primarily designated for political detainees. 

Throughout the 1980s and beyond, Nayyeri remained an enduring presence in Iran’s legal system. His leadership at the Special Courts for Article 49—a provision dealing with the restitution of illicit wealth accumulated under the previous regime—played a crucial role in shaping early post-Revolution legal reforms. 

In 2022, he was appointed by Mohseni Ejei as Senior Advisor to the Head of the Judiciary.