Mehdi Rafsanjani fled arrest in Iran shortly after the 2009 presidential elections. Mehdi had been an active organizer during the elections, heading the effort by the reformists to uncover any ballot fraud. He was widely accused by conservatives after the election of fomenting street protests and soon flew off to Britain, where he has lived ever since. A warrant has been issued for his arrest if he ever surfaces again in Iran.
In Britain last year, he was accepted as a doctoral candidate by Oxford University and began a five-year course last October.
The Guardian reported Monday that Oxford has now launched a formal investigation into whether the proposal for his thesis on the Iranian Constitution was his own work, as required by university rules.
The Guardian said an Oxford academic, who was unnamed, complained that the university’s standards had been “subverted” with the help of university insiders to allow Rafsanjani to enroll.
Rafsanjani denied the charges and has defended his application. Friends told The Guardian he is the victim of a witch-hunt.
Also part of the investigation are allegations that Rafsanjani’s English is too poor to write a doctoral dissertation and that he has failed to live within 12 miles of Oxford city center, as required of doctoral candidates.
Sir Peter North, a lawyer and former vice chancellor of Oxford, is heading the inquiry. It is to be completed within 10 weeks.
The Guardian said the university’s registrar received notice of the charges in December from at least two academics.
Kaveh Moussavi, an associate fellow at the center for socio-legal studies at the university and head of public interest law, who is originally from Iran, charged that Rafsanjani had been helped by university insiders to complete his application. This had angered him, he said, because a more deserving candidate would have lost out. “I have no doubt that the normal criteria on submissions have been subverted and that there are far, far more qualified candidates for a DPhil,” said Moussavi. “How he pulled this off, I don’t know, but I have every confidence that the university will investigate it thoroughly.”
At the center of the inquiry is the thesis proposal, which was assessed in January 2010 by two senior academics attached to the faculty of oriental studies. Dr. Homa Katouzian, a highly respected Iranian scholar of modern Iranian history, said the synopsis read well, but he did not realize the application had come from Rafsanjani’s son because it had been submitted using the son’s alternative family name, Bahramani.
The other assessor, Prof Edmund Herzig, declined to comment to The Guardian.
Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani, 41, is one of three sons and two daughters of of the former president. Friends told The Guardian he has claimed he was targeted because his father is an opponent of President Ahmadi-nejad.
A spokeswoman for the university said the inquiry is looking into allegations that individuals may have been paid to help draw up the application.
Rafsanjani declined to comment to The Guardian. He wrote in an email: “As you’re aware, my application has been accepted at Oxford University where I have been studying for the past few months. Should you need more clarifications,… I recommend that you contact the university’s press office.”