Daughter of former Iranian president sentenced to jail

By Rizwan Khatik - Tue Jan 03, 4:11 pm

Tehran: The daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been sentenced to six months in jail after being found guilty of “spreading propaganda” against the country’s regime.

Faezeh Hashemi, a political activist and former member of the Iranian parliament whose views are close to those of the reformists, was informed of the court’s verdict on Tuesday, Iran’s semi-official Ilna news agency reported.

“She has been convicted on charges of making propaganda against the ruling system and has been sentenced to six months in prison,” Hashemi’s lawyer, Gholam Ali Riahi, told Ilna.

Her father, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is a powerful cleric and former parliament speaker. In the past, Rafsanjani has been one of the government’s most vocal critics.

Rafsanjani served two terms as president from 1989 to 1997, and is still widely believed to be one of the wealthiest and most politically powerful men in Iran.

Riahi said Tehran’s revolutionary court also banned Hashemi from belonging to any political parties and taking part in media or online activities for the next five years. She has 20 days to appeal.

She fell foul of the Iranian authorities after the disputed presidential elections in 2009 when she publicly supported opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and later participated in popular protests against the vote’s results. At the time, she was briefly arrested in two separate occasions and barred from leaving the country.