Mehdi Hashemi, the son of the chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council, has been indicted on 12 charges by the Iranian judiciary.
An announcement by the Tehran Prosecutor, posted on the Tehran Revolutionary Court website, says that a 125-page indictment consisting of 12 charges has been issued for Mehdi Hashemi.
Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi gave no further details about the contents of the indictment.
Mehdi Hashemi left Iran following the controversial 2009 elections and resided abroad for three years. He was arrested upon his return to Iran last September and then released three months later, after the authorities claimed they had completed their investigations.
While the exact nature of the charges against Hashemi has not been announced by the judiciary, some have suggested they are “corruption and security” charges.
Mehdi Hashemi is currently released on bail, and his release has been challenged by conservative MP Hamid Resayi, who has accused the Hashemi family of manipulating the system.
Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani has become a common target of attacks since he chose to align himself with the reformists and challengers of the 2009 presidential election, which led to mass street protests.
Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, is also in jail now, serving a six-month term for the charge of insulting government officials in the media.
Faezeh Hashemi, a former MP, referred to Iranian authorities as “thugs and hoodlums” after she was attacked and verbally abused by government supporters in public.
