Ejei Declares the Accusation Against Arrested Iranian-Australian Citizen as 'Infiltration'

The spokesperson for the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran confirmed the arrest of an individual in the field of population control in Iran and announced that three to four other individuals are being pursued in this case. The Fars News Agency first reported on the arrest of several individuals in the 'population control' area by one of the 'security agencies' and labeled them as 'infiltrators'. According to the report from this agency close to the Revolutionary Guards, a 'dual-national' individual with the initials 'M.B.' who had been working as a 'researcher' for a long time has been arrested, and several other individuals have been summoned multiple times. The publication of this news provoked a reaction from Hesameddin Ashna, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani, who accused Fars News of 'securitizing' the environmental field, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of several individuals, and now turning to another area. Following this, Mahmoud Behzadi, a lawyer, announced that Meysam Hosseini Chavoshi, a professor of demography and researcher at the National University of Australia, has been arrested. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, without naming Ms. Hosseini Chavoshi, reported the arrest of one person in connection with 'infiltration' in the field of population control and stated that 'preliminary investigations of this individual are ongoing'. He added that 'since the case is not complete, I cannot provide details' and mentioned that 'three to four other individuals are also being pursued and have been summoned'. Ejei did not refer to the identities of these individuals but said that 'in addition to these, several others who were unaware of the hidden agendas were warned and provided explanations regarding the goals of such institutions'. This judicial official reiterated the Supreme Leader's remarks about the 'enemy's' efforts to 'infiltrate' through influencing 'decision-making' and stated: 'The Ministry of Intelligence sends reports to the judiciary regarding the establishment of organizations under the guise of institutions.' He added that 'foreign services are behind the scenes of these institutions, and their ultimate goal is to harm the country. Naturally, these institutions are under surveillance.' Previously, Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a conservative member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, defended the arrest of several activists in the 'population control' area, claiming that these individuals had 'manipulated' policies and demographic statistics and presented them to 'top figures of the regime'. He claimed that the actions of the arrested individuals in the field of population control, which operated in 'research centers', had brought Iran into a 'crisis' in terms of population. The population control policy in Iran has been promoted since 1989 with slogans such as 'two children are enough' and 'better life, fewer children', and was even encouraged by clerics. However, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, suddenly deemed the preference for fewer children as a 'malady' and for the first time in 2013 called his previous stance on population control a mistake, subsequently issuing a decree titled 'General Population Policies' to the three branches of government. The spokesperson for the judiciary of Iran also announced that Ahmad Iraqi, the former currency deputy of the Central Bank, will be tried in a special court due to the 'nature of his accusations'. According to Ejei, a hearing date for Iraqi's case has not yet been set, and under the law, the content of special courts, even if public, cannot be published. He added that this case has nine defendants, some inside and some outside the country. He did not refer to the identities of the other defendants. The spokesperson for the judiciary had previously announced that a bill of indictment had been issued for the former currency deputy of the Central Bank, a director of this bank, and six others on charges of 'distributing currency outside regulations' in the market, and Valiollah Seif, the former head of this bank, is also banned from leaving the country. Ahmad Iraqi, the former currency deputy of the Central Bank of Iran, was arrested on August 5 and released after two months. The official news agency of the Iranian judiciary also recently reported the confirmation of the 'dismissal from service' of Valiollah Seif, stating that for this reason, 'he cannot even be an advisor to Hassan Rouhani'. Seif, who was dismissed from his position following severe fluctuations in the Iranian currency market on July 25, was appointed in September as 'advisor to the President on monetary and banking affairs'. According to Ejei, after the arrest of Ahmad Iraqi regarding the fluctuations in the currency market, Seif also became involved in this case. Ejei further announced the confirmation of the death sentence for Hamid Bagheri Damani, accused of 'economic corruption', by the Supreme Court of Iran. He stated that Bagheri Damani was 'sentenced to death in the first court and this sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court'. In response to a question about why the proceedings and issuance of the verdict in this case took so long, he said: 'In this case, many counts of fraud were raised that needed to be examined along with the claims made by the plaintiffs.' Judiciary officials refer to Damani as a 'large bank debtor', and some media outlets have mentioned his debt as 'several thousand billion tomans'. Following the turmoil in the Iranian currency market, Vahid Malmoulin and Mohammad Ismail Qasemi, two active figures in the coin market, were executed, and Daryush Abedini Bilandi and Younes Bahadini were also sentenced to death, but these two sentences have not yet been confirmed by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic agreed at the end of August with the Chief Justice's proposal to form a special court with the presence of three revolutionary court judges to address the case of 'economic corruptors'. According to his order, the verdicts issued from this court, except for death sentences, are 'final and enforceable'.