Baghaei 'sits in protest' at Abdulazim Shrine instead of attending court

The third session of the trial of Hamid Baghaei, former deputy to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his presidency, was held without his presence. Meanwhile, it was announced that Mr. Baghaei went to the shrine of Shah Abdulazim in southern Tehran instead of attending court and has 'sat in protest' there. Hamidreza Baghaei was arrested in 2015 on charges of 'embezzlement' and was later released reportedly by the order of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. He was arrested again in July of this year and released on a bail of 20 billion tomans. ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday (November 15) that the court session for Hamid Baghaei was held in branch 1057 of the Government Employees Court with the presence of his lawyer, Adel Heydari. Another report from ISNA indicated that Mr. Baghaei, along with Ali Akbar Javanfekr and Habibollah Jozef Kharaasani, was seen at the shrine of Abdulazim, escorted by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, instead of attending the court session. Javanfekr was Ahmadinejad's media advisor, and Jozef Kharaasani was the former financial manager of Ahmadinejad's presidential office. According to ISNA, a Telegram channel close to Ahmadinejad's supporters referred to Baghaei's presence at this religious site as 'sitting in protest.' In Iran's political history, the tradition of 'sitting in protest' has been common, where individuals facing punishment or objection would seek refuge in a location to avoid punishment due to the sanctity of that place. The shrine of Abdulazim in Shahr-e Rey, south of Tehran, has historically been one of the places for such protests. This is the first time it has been reported that a former high-ranking official of the Islamic Republic has resorted to sitting in protest to avoid punishment from the judiciary. Earlier in November, Iranian media reported the summons of Ali Akbar Javanfekr and Hamidreza Baghaei to the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office. The summons did not specify the reason for Baghaei's summons, but he had previously alluded to the head of the judiciary, stating that neither his daughter is a spy nor does he have 63 bank accounts. Baghaei also claimed that the plaintiffs are the heads of the three branches of government. Ali Asghar Hosseini, Baghaei's lawyer, has also been summoned for charges of 'participation in disturbing public order, complicity in insult, and spreading falsehoods.' Mr. Baghaei, along with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had run for the presidential election in 2017, but the Guardian Council rejected their qualifications. After his recent court session, he called it 'political' and sarcastically stated that 'I neither have 63 personal accounts, nor is my daughter a British spy, nor is my brother corrupt.' Baghaei's remarks referred to the issue of the head of the judiciary's 'personal accounts' and an unverified report from the Amadnews website regarding 'Zahra Larijani,' the daughter of the head of the judiciary, being a spy. The issue of spying by the head of the judiciary was denied by Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, officials of this branch, and the Minister of Intelligence. In this context, the head of the judiciary criticized the labeling of some cases as 'political' and threatened to deal with 'slander and defamation against this branch to put an end to this situation.' Hours after the summons of Hamid Baghaei and Ali Akbar Javanfekr to court, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the handling of Baghaei's case as indicative of 'the depth of the disarray in the judiciary' and accused officials of this branch of using judicial power as a tool for their personal goals. Baghaei, who had also appeared in his second court session with a red bag, on November 21, wrote a letter to the judge of his case, referring to what he called 'violations by judicial and security officials,' demanding the trial of the Tehran prosecutor and his interrogators in the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC Intelligence Organization. The executive deputy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his presidency stated in a letter to Judge Heydari, the head of the 1057 Government Employees Court, that the handling of his case indicates 'a prior political and hostile decision to condemn' Ahmadinejad's government. He also stated that interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC had pressured him during his detention to confess to 'spying for Israel and Britain,' 'security crimes,' 'connections with jinn and fairies,' and 'moral crimes.' According to Baghaei, in late August 2015, Hossein Taeb, the head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, met with him in prison and said, 'If you say things against Ahmadinejad and Mashaei, you will be released.' He also stated that interrogators had asked him to confess that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also a 'spy.' The verbal altercations between Hamidreza Baghaei and judiciary officials are not unprecedented. This summer, upon his release from prison, he severely attacked the judiciary, calling Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, a 'liar' and warned judiciary officials that they would soon be 'overthrown.'