Ahmadinejad Launches Strong Attack on Judiciary Following Baqai's Summons

Hours after the summons of Hamid Baqai and Ali Akbar Javanfekr to court, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the handling of Baqai's case as indicative of the "depth of the disordered situation in the judiciary" and accused its officials of using judicial power as a tool for their personal goals. According to the government website, Dolat Bahar, the former president of Iran stated in a letter on Thursday, November 4, that "all legal and citizen rights standards have been violated in the interrogation process of Hamid Baqai, and the indictment is filled with legal flaws and multiple violations by the investigator, prosecutor, and agents." Ahmadinejad published parts of the accusations against Baqai, which include "requesting a total of 300 million tomans in bonuses for 16 government members," "assistance to the Iranian International University," "support for the Iranian House Organization," "aid to the state newspaper Iran," and "collusion in contracts and transactions of five companies." Ahmadinejad indicated that these accusations arose from a complaint by Hassan Rouhani's government against Baqai. Some of the allegations mentioned in Ahmadinejad's letter had previously been raised by officials of Rouhani's government and members of parliament. For instance, Akbar Torqan, head of the Free Zones High Council, accused Baqai on May 30, 2014, of leasing three government buildings at very low rates to an institute under his supervision. Torqan had also claimed that on the day of Rouhani's inauguration, 16 billion tomans were deposited into the account of the Iranian University owned by Ahmadinejad. Following this accusation, Baqai stated that the 16 billion tomans had been returned to the government and asserted that "the return of 16 billion tomans was voluntary, and Torqan should not think he is a police commissioner." In 2011, Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of the eighth parliament, stated that Baqai had attempted to transfer a 450 billion toman project to a private company and "was involved in it." The delivery of currency by "a revolutionary entity" to assist some African officials was also mentioned in Ahmadinejad's letter, where he noted that the status of a "certain amount of currency" delivered to Baqai by "a revolutionary entity for assisting some African officials" in August 2015 was unclear. Ahmadinejad rejected this accusation without naming the entity or the African officials and without providing further details. The term "revolutionary entities" is typically used to refer to organizations such as the Revolutionary Guards or other institutions under the Supreme Leader's supervision. Ahmadinejad also accused the judge in Baqai's case of intending to "steer the court towards his own purpose and only listen to matters that fulfill this goal." According to Ahmadinejad, this judge "does not allow legal defense, threatens, and prevents the raising of fundamental questions and objections regarding the illegal formation of the case and numerous violations and illegal and undocumented actions of the investigator and agents and baseless accusations in the indictment." He emphasized that a decision regarding Baqai's case had been made in advance, and there was insistence on its execution through the judiciary. Previously, Baqai and his lawyer had stated that the judge did not allow them to speak in court. Hours before Ahmadinejad's letter was published, Iranian media reported the summons of Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the former president's media advisor, and Hamid Reza Baqai, deputy of the ninth and tenth governments. According to this report, Ali Asghar Hosseini, Baqai's lawyer, was also summoned on charges of "participating in disrupting public order and aiding in insult and dissemination of falsehoods." A few days ago, Baqai referred to his trial as "political" and sarcastically stated that "I neither have 63 personal accounts, nor is my daughter a British spy, nor is my brother corrupt." Baqai's remarks referred to the issue of the judiciary chief's "personal accounts" and an unverified report from the Amad News website regarding "Zahra Larijani's" alleged espionage. The judiciary chief's espionage allegations were denied by Sadegh Larijani, judiciary officials, and the Minister of Intelligence. The day after these statements, the judiciary chief criticized the labeling of some cases as "political" and threatened to confront "slander and defamation against this judiciary until this situation is resolved." Ahmadinejad described the handling of Baqai's case in his letter on Thursday as "indicative of the depth of the current disordered situation in the judiciary," which he claimed is "one of the main roots of the unresolved problems of the country and the unbearable pressure on the people." The former president accused judiciary officials of "using judicial power as a tool for their personal goals instead of serving the people." He added, "They have no right to use the claim of fighting corruption as a pretext and tool for political and selfish actions and oppression and violation of people's rights and transgression of laws and suppression." Ahmadinejad had previously linked the arrest of his associates, including Hamid Reza Baqai, and his own case to the upcoming presidential elections and what he called "Ali Larijani's candidacy" in these elections. In his letter on Thursday, the former president expressed hope that the judiciary would "stop political maneuvering and violations of laws and transgressions against people's rights." According to him, the judiciary "feels secure knowing that no one is watching and that complaints from the people against the judiciary must also be handled by themselves, allowing them to do whatever they want." Previously, Iranian judiciary officials had stated that this institution is only accountable to the Supreme Leader. Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, even rejected the oversight of the Assembly of Experts over the Supreme Leader and the institutions under his supervision, stating that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's comments about the Assembly's oversight were "baseless," "incorrect," and "unlawful expectations and wishes" that, according to him, "have nothing to do with the constitution."