Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, born in the central province of Isfahan in February 1927, is a renowed Islamic scholar, jurisprudent and politician.
Since 1988, Ayatollah Jannati has been serving as the secretary of the Constitutional Council. He doubles as the chairman of the Assembly of Experts, a high-ranking body that elects and oversees the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution. Members of the assembly are directly elected to office by people for an eight-year term. In 1989, the Assembly picked Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei to succeed the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini (RA).
Before attaining Ijtihad (practiced by the jurisprudent to discover secondary divine legislation), he was a pupil of such prominent Islamic scholars as Imam Khomeini, Ayatollah Boroujerdi, Ayatollah Golpayegani and many others in the Qom Seminary.
Ayatollah Jannati has a long record of struggle against tyranny of the US-backed Pahlavi regime before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The top cleric is also a former member of other key organizations, including the Constitution Review Council, Islamic Development Organization, and Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution among others.