A Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani to six months in prison and a five-year ban from political, cultural and media activities.
Hashemi, the daughter of the moderate cleric Ayatollah Rafsanjani, was sentenced for “propaganda activities against the regime.”
Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who is the head of Iran’s Expediency Council, has been inclined to support reformists in elections and has paid a price for it.
His support for the reformist candidate MirHosein Mousavi in the controversial elections of 2009 resulted in his isolation in the Islamic Republic system. Despite his years of influence, Ayatollah Rafsanjani was stripped of his position as the head of the Assembly of Experts, which oversees the Supreme Leader’s actions.
His daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, was arrested briefly during the street protests that followed the 2009 elections and was finally charged for an interview she gave to the Roozonline website, in which she criticized the Islamic Republic government and said the administration is being run by a group of “thugs and hoodlums.”
