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| Amid accusations, Rafsanjanis son visits UK |
| 2009-09-01 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] Amid growing accusations of money laundering and fact fabrication, the son of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani has left the country for the UK, a source close to the family says. Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani's visit to London, however, "is not linked with the rumors over the possibility of his arrest, on charges of orchestrating and engineering [Iran's] post-election unrest," the source said on Monday. During the fourth round of the mass trials held for the 'post-election detainees' on August 25, defendant Masoud Bastani told the court that Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani has been seeking to "smear the four-year performance of the government, undermine legal organizations of the country (such as the Basij, the IRGC and the Guardian Council) and question the veracity of the (June 12 presidential) election results," through Jomhouriyat website. Another defendant Hamzeh Karami, the manager of Jomhouriyat website, also told the court that about USD 2 million of the budget of the Iranian Fuel Conservation Organization -- which was headed by Mehdi at the time -- was used to finance his father's presidential campaign in 2005. "Mehdi Hashemi believed that the elections in Iran were financed with government funds. He did not believe in spending private savings for the election. So they set up a system for forgery and falsification of documents," Karami claimed. Following the outbreak of the unrest in the aftermath of Iran's presidential election, Mehdi Hashemi-Rafsanjani and his sister Faezeh were barred from leaving the country. However, the ban was lifted shortly afterwards thanks to the then prosecutor general Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi's intervention. |
| Posted by:Fred |