Mohammad Yazdi ( Persian : محمد یزدی ; 2 July 1931 – 9 December 2020) was an Iranian conservative and principlist cleric who served as the head of Judiciary System of Iran between 1989 and 1999. In 2015, he was elected to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts , defeating Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani , a former president, by a vote count of 47 to 24.