As his closest allies are threatened with long prison sentences, Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appealed to the Supreme Leader in two letter criticizing the political situation.

In the letters, dated February 19 and March 13 and published on his Dolat-e Bahar outlet, Ahmadinejad demanded structural reforms in institutions including the Guardian Council and the judiciary. He called for an end to the “rule of parallel institutions” — an apparent reference to the Revolutionary Guards — establishment of a constitutional court, and a ban on the armed forces from intervening in political and economic activities.

Referring to protests across the country in January, Ahmadinejad warned that “public dissatisfaction with the regime’s performance is serious and extremely high”.

Last week, Ahmadinejad’s former Vice President Hamid Baghaei was sent to prison to serve a 15-year sentence for corruption. His former Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was arrested over his public criticism of the arrest.

Another Vice President, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, was imprisoned for five years in 2015. Senior advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr is also facing detention.

Although the Supreme Leader backed Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009, amid mass protests, the President was at odds with Ayatollah Khamenei and other regime figures throughout his second term. He accused the Revolutionary Guards of corruption, and staged an 11-day boycott of his duties in 2011 when his attempt to take personal charge of the Intelligence Ministry was blocked.

Ahmadinejad has retained a seat on the Expediency Council, but his attempts to return to frontline politics — carried out through rallies and activity on the Dolat-e Bahar site — have been blunted by limits on his activity. Both he and Baghaei were barred by the Guardian Council from standing in the 2017 Presidential election.

“No Trace of Political Freedom Remains”

In February, the Supreme Leader implicitly aimed at Ahmadinejad as he said the politician was “doing what the enemy would have done” with the criticism of the regime: “Those who have been in power for eight years cannot play the role of the opposition.”

Ahmadinejad responded in the February 19 letter:

Every single case of injustice exercised by the government in Iran can lead to the collapse of a big empire.

The majority of Iranians demand essential changes. Some even want change through radical and violent measures, while others follow other ways to bring about change, fearing that the country and its people might suffer even more if Iran’s fate becomes like some other regional states.

Obviously, the best practice would be conducting essential reforms from within the system.

The former President chided the“security atmosphere” and “structural problems”: “No trace of political freedom has remained after four decades as the government and its security agents rule people’s cultural, social and economic lives.”

In an unintentionally ironic comment, given the circumstances of his 2009 re-election, Ahmadinejad denounced “the engineering of elections by the Guardian Council”.

And he aimed directly at the Supreme Leader with the claim that, as financial institutions under Khamenei’s supervision run businesses worth billions of dollars, the public is kept unaware of their activities, income, and expenditure.