Ali-Akbar Javanfekr is the president’s communications deputy and also the chief of the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency.
Javanfekr is one of several officials closely linked to Ahmadi-nejad who have been targeted by hardline rivals. They accuse the president of being in the grip of a “deviant current” of advisers seeking to undermine the role of the clergy in the Islamic establishment.
The Mashreghnews website report said Javanfekr was sentenced for insulting the Supreme Leader, a serious charge. But it did not spell out how or when Javanfekr insulted the Leader.
Javanfekr’s lawyer later confirmed the sentence, according to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA). Javanfekr has 20 days to appeal.
“Javanfekr also has been stripped of participation rights in political parties, groups, associations and media activities for five years,” Mashreghnews reported.
The Fars news agency said two other people closely associated with the “deviant current”—whom it did not identify—had been convicted of espionage and economic corruption and would be punished with jail terms, fines and lashings.
“One of the two individuals … has been charged with four offences, the first of which carries a five-year jail sentence for spying for the US, British and Italian intelligence services,” Fars said. That is believed to be the first time anyone linked to Ahmadi-nejad has been charged with, let alone convicted of, espionage.
Word of the verdict against Javanfekr came two months after he managed to avoid being arrested when his offices were raided following his conviction for an apparently unrelated offence. Javanfekr’s conviction in November was for publishing an article about Islamic dress that was deemed offensive to public decency.
The Judicial attacks on the Ahmadi-nejad faction began after the president openly clashed with the Supreme Leader in April, when the Supreme Leader reversed Ahmadi-nejad’s firing of the intelligence minister and Ahmadi-nejad flew into a age. Since then the president has been perceived as vulnerable and his opponents have acted as if it is open season on him.
Originally, the fury was aimed primarily at Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the president’s chief of staff, who was routinely seen at his side and viewed as an eminence grise. But after the incident over the firing of the intelligence minister, Mashai went to ground and has rarely been seen since April. That was apparently a smart move as he is rarely mentioned these days by the president’s opponents.