Abolhassan Banisadr
Abolhassan Banisadr (ابوالحسن بنیصدر in Persian) was the first elected President of Iran after the Islamic revolution. He was elected on January 25, 1980.
Banisadr was not an Islamic cleric, because Ayatollah Khomeini had insisted that clerics should not run for positions in the government (he changed his mind later). Accusing Banisadr of a weak performance in leading Iranian troops in the Iran-Iraq War, Khomeini forever stripped the Presidency from holding the power of commander-in-chief and instead assigned it to his own office.
Banisadr was impeached on June 22 of 1981 by the Iranian parliament because of his moves against the clerics in power, most specifically Mohammad Beheshti, head of judicial system at the time. Ayatollah Khomeini appears to have instigated the impeachment.
Banisadr later fled to France, and still (as of 2004) lives there.
