Iran`s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani`s son, Mehdi Hashemi

The jailed son of Iran`s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been accused of spying, the Fars news agency reported on Thursday.

Quoting an unnamed informed source, the agency said that Mehdi Hashemi has been accused “of spying and of having provided sensitive information to foreigners.”

Rafsanjani, who was arrested in late September, was also accused of seeking to disrupt the economy and corruption linked to oil contracts signed during his father`s presidency between 1989 and 1997.

He is also accused of having undermined national security during protests that broke out after the disputed 2008 re-election of current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mehdi Hashemi was arrested in late September upon his return to the Islamic republic from Britain, where he had lived for the past three years.

Tehran had issued an arrest warrant for him in 2010.

Just days prior to his arrest his sister, Faezeh Hashemi, was also detained and jailed for “propaganda against the regime” in line with a court decision earlier this year sentencing her to six months in jail.

BOTh siblings were accused by authorities of involvement in 2009 street protests that erupted after Ahmadinejad was given a second term in elections that the opposition said were marked by electoral fraud.

Faezeh Hashemi was briefly arrested with thousands of others after those demonstrations, while her brother fled the country.

Their father, an influential cleric, is seen as a moderate voice isolated by hardliners in Iran`s regime.

Rafsanjani, who still heads the country`s top political arbitration body, has faced demands from conservatives that he publicly condemn opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, both of whom are under house arrest. -AFP

(Description of Source: Beirut NOW Lebanon in English — A privately-funded pro-14 March coalition, anti-Syria news website; URL: www.nowlebanon.com)

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Iran Report Says Arrest of Hashemi-Rafsanjani Children an Attempt to Gain Appeal
E`temad Online

Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family

Report by Samina Rastegari: “Behind the Scenes of the Detention of the Children of Hashemi[-Rafsanjani]”

Behind the Scenes of the Detention of the Children of Hashemi-Rafsanjani Samina Rastegari

The detention of the children of Hashemi-Rafsanjani within a timespan of one day, and more importantly the return of Mehdi Hashemi with the knowledge that he would be sent to jail, was more than anything else astonishing to the extremists, who in the past three years had made threats to Hashemi and his family. They do not know why this happened. Why did Mehdi Hashemi return to Iran, despite all the signals and recommendations (to the contrary)? Why did his sister go to prison, as well, on the same night that he was supposed to return, and suddenly all media coverage was devoted to the news of this family? Why were the students who were waiting for Mehdi Hashemi with placards not given a permit for assembly? Why was Mehdi not arrested at the airport and taken straight to Evin Prison? How did this happen, that suddenly all the domestic and foreign media created a positive picture of Hashemi-Rafsanjani?

What had happened that a man whom they had identified as the root cause of all Iran`s problems for seven whole years, a person standing against whom could bring in votes, a man who was said to be the cause of all the injustices and the poverty of the people, and in whose name the deeds to most of the lands in Iran were issued, was suddenly transformed into a victimized father who had to go to prison to see his children? Had something happened behind the scenes to unravel all that they had woven all these years? Yesterday, the fundamentalist media were totally astounded in their analyses. Here and there, one could hear single phrases along with butts, ifs, maybes, and conceivably; but, obviously, no one knew anything. Some were able to get a whiff of something, relying on their political instincts; but none of them had any knowledge of anything.

The pseudo analyses regarding these questions can be divided into a couple parts. A. A Deal Has Been Made

Haj Sa`id Qasemi, who had previously said that he would shave his beard if Fa`ezeh was arrested, announcing that on the path of justice not only would he sincerely place his beard but also his life, in a note placing side-by-side the news of the arrest of Fa`ezeh, “His Excellency Dr. Jasebi, the former president of the Open University and another financial and logistical supporter of the 1388 (21 March 2009-20 March 2010) sedition, has become a member of the Council for Islamizing the Universities (Showra-ye Eslami Shodan-e Daneshgahha),” and “the statements and the commotion by His Excellency Nateq-Nuri in Mashhad, the return of Mehdi Hashemi to the country, and meandering and windfall profiteering from the pen by persons such as Khaz`ali and Nurizad,” concluded that something is happening; and that which is happening “is the start of a new project, the target of which is next year`s election and the goal of which is to cleanse the perpetrators of the sedition, a project that retroactive (as published) to the high prices manufactured by American agents and the filthy mafia nested in the ministries and government and nongovernment institutions is trying to show that the regime is incapable of securing a living for the people (especially in the year of `support for national production and Iranian investments` and `resistant economy`) and also to link this incompetence to lack of relations with the United States and show that the only way to save the country is in creating relations with the United States, a relationship the key to which is only in the hands of one person. This person is the same person who just a few weeks ago published his letter of 20 some years before to His Eminence the Imam about the need to create relations with the United States on the website attributed to him in order to send a message to the United States that “the key to a relationship is in my hands alone.”

Sa`id Qasemi knows well that with these statements he is targeting the judicial b ranch more than anything else. For this reason, addressing the head of that branch, he says: “Revered brother, Your Excellency Mr. Amoli-Larijani!… I still do not intend to make myself believe that in this new scenario and with the coinciding of these incidents, God forbid, the judicial branch has been manipulated, or unwittingly and negligently is playing a role in the enemy`s puzzle and the new sedition. Even though you know well that our people are always thirsty for actions of this kind, actions that have become an impossible dream for our people, and not carrying through cases such as “the incident on 8 Shahrivar (30 August)” and “Keshmiri” remain in the history of the Revolution still ambiguous and unresolved, your delayed actions should not cause ridicule in (the markets of laughter) on the Voice and Vision (Seda va Sima), even justly. The Iran Network raises the same doubt, albeit less strongly, and writes: “The coinciding of the arrest of Fa`ezeh Hashemi and the return of Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani to the country after nearly three years, especially at a time near the presidential election, has created various doubts in the minds that might not be unrelated to the new round of political activities of the chairman of the Council for the Discernment of the Expediency of the Regime.” The political meaning of this statement by Qasemi is that the entire system has come to the conclusion that the solution for getting out of the present situation, whether in the country or abroad, is for Hashemi-Rafsanjani to come to the scene, an incident that seems to be very difficult for persons such as Haj Sa`id to digest and believe. B. The Change of the Climate in the Interest of the Reformists

Some other analyses regard the main winner of these events not to be Hashemi-Rafsanjani but the reformists and protesters against the 1388 election. Those who hold this view mainly belong to the traditional fundamentalists. From the perspective of those such as Taraqqi and Resalat newspaper, the consecutive occurrence of these reports means the change of the climate in the interest of the reformists. Considering that we are on the threshold of the 11 th presidential election, Taraqqi concludes that the return of Mehdi and the arrest of Fa`ezeh Hashemi-Rafsanjani were not accidental. He considers the candidacy of Hashemi-Rafsanjani to be unlikely and thinks that the only people who would benefit in this climate would be the reformists. Resalat newspaper, as well, in an article clearly considers the goal of these events that appear to be a project to be a pretense at being victimized, the first result of which is the decrease of the burden of the pressure of public opinion on the family of Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani, because it sends the clear message that “the costs of the sedition are not merely on the shoulders of the infantry of this group who appeared on streets; but the children of the highest authorities of the country also have a share in these costs; and this issue, while creating solidarity, can once again be effective in mobilizing the disappointed Green (Sabz) forces.” In the opinion of the writer of this note in Resalat newspaper, “by magnifying the issue of the arrest of Fa`ezeh and Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the Green media are trying to inculcate in some way the continuation of the climate of crisis. Another important point, however, that can be intended by the counterrevolutionary media in posturing and the strategy of appearing to be a victim in connection with the detention of the children of Hashemi-Rafsanjani is an attempt of some sort to create symbols for political actions in the next election. Their goal is to make symbols of steadfastness and resistance out of Fa`ezeh and Mehdi.” Attention can be paid to these analyses from another angle and, by taking into consideration the introductory remarks of Commander Sa`id Qasemi, the conclusion made that the trend of the affairs in the country will advance toward moderation and that the entire regime has reached the conclusion that making the fate of the regime to be the same as the fate of the extremists who do not have any belief in specific principles, those whose ontological philosophy finds meaning in creating crisis, must be prevented. The first person that they drove off the field for this task was Hashemi-Rafsanjani, whose experience in crisis management was as long as the life of the Revolution. Thus far, based on conditions, Hashemi-Rafsanjani has been beloved and hated by various political groups; but the past seven years for him were different from all the previous years. Now with the capital that he has accumulated since the day following the 1388 election, he can play a national role beyond the factions, a role that is only difficult for those who benefit from crisis.

(Description of Source: Tehran E`temad Online in Persian — Website of pro-reform Tehran daily that supported Mehdi Karrubi and then Mir Hoseyn Musavi)

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Iranian Paper Writes About `Close Ties` Between Sons of Rafsanjani, Qadhafi
Javan Online
Saturday, March 5, 2011

Unattributed report: “Unveiling Special Ties Between Son of Libyan Dictator and Mehdi Hashemi”

Sayf-al-Islam Qadhafi, son of the Libyan dictator (Mu`ammar Qadhafi), who has had a particular role in repressing and killing of the Libyan revolutionary people, has had special ties with Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani (son of Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani) going back a long way.

The history of close ties between Mehdi and Sayf goes back years, Rajanews reported. These two have cooperated with each other in commercial and economic projects. They have also made trips to each other`s countries.

According to existing documents, Mehdi Hashemi once travelled to Libya in Mehr 1386 (September 2007) at the invitation of Sayf-al-Islam. In one of these documents, the head of Mehdi Hashemi`s office in the board of trustees at Azad University, Ali Sar-Lak, in a letter to the Libyan ambassador to Tehrandated 20 September 2007, wrote: “In view of Mr Mehdi Hashemi Bahremani`s trip at the invitation of Sayf Qadhafi, please take the necessary measures for issuing a visa.”

Sar-Lak, in another letter dated 25 September 2010, writes about Mehdi Hashemi`s flight and arrival time to Tripoli, Libya.

In reaction to the revolution of the Libyan people, Sayf Qadhafi invited foreign media reporters to his castle a few days ago and announced that everywhere is calm.

Sayf Qadhafi has issued the order for the killing of protesters during the unrest in Libya. A video published on the internet shows Mu`ammar Qadhafi`s son asking the military forces and supporters of the ruling regime to murder protesters. In this video, Sayf-al Islam is standing armed among the police and supporters of the ruling regime, and calls for the killing of those who are against his father. He addresses the group, saying: “Today, we should respond to those who are saying that the police have joined the protesters. This country is your country.”

Sayf Qadhafi owns a luxurious house in Hampstead park area of London. He had intended to sell it for 10,950,000 pounds (about 18m dollars). However, after the unrest in Libya, he changed his mind and said he intended to rent it out. Even so, although he asked for a price much lower than the real letting price, estate agents in this area say that no one is interested in renting his house.

(Description of Source: Tehran Javan Online in Persian — website of hardline conservative daily affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC); www.javannewspaper.com)

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Iran: Students Plan Rally To Urge Arrest, Trial of Rafsanjani`s Son, Daughter
Iran Online
Thursday, June 18, 2009

corrected version: adding portion of report to end missing for technical reasons, correcting Source Type; news report citing Fars News Agency, entitled “Student organizations call for demonstration outside prosecutor`s office to demand arrest and prosecution of Fa`ezeh and Mehdi Hashemi”

A number of university student organizations have issued a statement and have called on the students and the public as a whole to join a protest gathering outside the office of the Tehran Prosecutor, in order to emphasize their demand for action against the main elements responsible for the recent disturbances in society. According to a report by Fars News Agency, in this statement, the student Basij, the Union of the Islamic Societies of Students, the Union of the Independent Islamic Societies of Students, and the Justice-Seeking Movement of Students, have said: We, the university student organizations and groupings, invite the proud, zealous and ever-present members of public, particularly the aware and vigilant students, to gather outside the office of the Tehran Prosecutor, situated in 15th Khordad Square (central Tehran), at 10 o`clock this morning, Thursday 28 Khordad 1388 (18 June 2009), in order to convey the following demands to the Judiciary Power:

1. Serious, revolutionary and firm action against the elements responsible for the recent disturbances in Tehran

2. The issuance of a decree to arrest and publically prosecute Fa`ezeh and Mehdi Hashemi for playing a direct role in inciting the people to become involved in unrest and turmoil, and for organizing thugs and hooligans to destroy public properties and disturb psychological atmosphere in society.

(Description of Source: Tehran Iran Online in Persian — an official government newspaper published by IRNA, the state news agency; URL: www.iran-newspaper.com)

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