The maneuvers between former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, the mentor of President Rouhani, and his rivals in Iran’s regime continue….
On Saturday and Sunday, Rafsanjani’s son Mehdi Hashemi — arrested in September 2012 as he returned from self-imposed exile in Britain — attended court hearings on charges of financial impropriety, electoral manipulation, and actions against national security.
The charges were lodged just after the disputed 2009 Presidential election. Mehdi Hashemi, living in Britain, was denounced as a prominent conspirator in the show trial of more than 100 political detainees in Tehran in August 2009.
The hearings were held behind closed doors, prompting criticism from figures such as leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli, a relative of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani.
Tension was further raised by confusion over the exact charges against Mehdi Hashemi. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said they included both economic and political crimes. However, Mehdi Hashemi’s lawyer insisted that there were no economic allegations such as corruption, leaving only the political claims.
Sceptics argue that the timing of the trial is to put pressure on Rafsanjani before the selection of the head of the Assembly of Experts in September.
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The former President led the body, which has the authority to choose and remove the Supreme Leader, from 2007 to 2011. However, amid the regime’s displeasure with his defense of protests after the 2009 election, he was defeated in 2011 by Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani.
Mahdavi Kani suffered a heart attack in early June and has not come out of a coma.
Hardliners are hostile to Rafsanjani because of his association with the efforts of President Rouhani for political and cultural reform. That wariness has been heightened by the former President’s appeals to the Supreme Leader to release opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard from the house arrests imposed in February 2011.
See Iran Feature: Rafsanjani Asks Supreme Leader to Free Detained Opposition Leaders Mousavi & Karroubi
Last week MP Ali Motahari renewed the effort for the release of the trip, saying Mousavi and Karroubi — both candidates in the 2009 Presidential election — must be allowed to defend themselves in a court against allegations of “sedition”.
Motahari raised the cases of other politicians detained since 2009: “Criticism is the crime of the majority of the prisoners held because of the 2009 election. What is the crime of (former Deputy Interior Minister) Mostafa Tajzadeh and (former Deputy Speaker of Parliament) Behzad Nabavi? Was it anything but criticising?”
Motahari continued, “Following (the system of) velayat-e faqih does not mean staying silent toward the decision made by the Vali Faqih (Supreme Leader), and it certainly does not mean we should imprison anyone with an opposing view.”
