Faezeh Hashemi, the elder daughter of the former president, was carted off to Evin prison Saturday night to serve a six-month sentence for criticizing the government of the Islamic Republic.
Faezeh was among thousands arrested during the post-election protests in June 2009. She was arrested twice but quickly released from custody both times. Last December, however, she was put on trial for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” She was found guilty and sentenced to six months in jail, and also banned from all political activity for five years.
Her lawyer said the charges against her were related to interviews she gave about the repression of the protests.
The Tehran prosecutor’s office issued an announcement Sunday saying she had been put in jail to serve her sentence. The Fars news agency said she would do her time in Evin.
One of her brothers, Mehdi, ran the reformist effort to assure a fair ballot count in the 2009 presidential election and has been accused of fomenting the protests after the balloting.
Mehdi left the country soon after the elections and had been pursuing a master’s degree at Oxford University in Britain. Why he chose to return at this time, with his studies uncompleted, has not been explained.
However, there are rumors of a deal involving the two Rafsanjani children and their father’s political future.
The rumors say Mehdi will likely be exonerated quickly and Faezeh’s imprisonment sets the stage for an early release and termination of her legal problems. Faezeh has been politically active for decades. She served one term in the Majlis. She has supported women’s athletics and generally adopted a feminist role in Iran.
Rumors of the elder Rafsanjani’s political resuscitation began a few weeks ago during the Non-Aligned Summit when Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi greeted the guests with Rafsanjani at his side. Then Rafsanjani was seated next to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Since the 2009 presidential elections, Rafsanjani’s political standing has been in decline. He was expected to win that election, but was upended by Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad. Then in 2009, he backed Ahmadi-nejad’s reformist opponents and became a major target of hardliners after the protests erupted and Rafsanjani called for accommodation, not repression.
First, Rafsanjani was dumped as one of the clerics leading Friday prayers in Tehran, something that would require Khamenehi’s agreement. Next, Rafsanjani lost the chairmanship of the Assembly of Experts. Earlier this year, he was expected to be replaced by Khamenehi as chairman of the Expediency Council, his last post in the regime.
But Khamenehi re-appointed Rafsanjani as chairman and now has honored him by bringing him prominently before the non-aligned summit.
Rafsanjani has always pursued fungible politics, slipping easily from left to right, always pursuing what he sees as a workable and pragmatic course and never an ideological one. It remains to be seen if Khamenehi now has wearied of eight years with Ahmadi-nejad and prefers to return to a pragmatic course.
The two men have been friends for a half century, and it is widely believed that Khamenehi’s abandonment of Rafsanjani since 2009 reflects political pressures from hardliners and not a personal preference. But even if that is true, how is Khamenehi to cope with hardliner wrath if he does resurrect Rafsanjani?