Hashemi Rafsanjani's Daughter: They Said Your Father Would Be Assassinated in a Way That Appears to Be Natural Death

Fatemeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, the daughter of the former head of the Expediency Council, stated that two months prior to her father's death, she was informed that he would be 'assassinated.' On Tuesday, February 18, she told the 'Shargh' newspaper that two strangers came to her father's workplace and warned that Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani would be 'assassinated' because he had lost to the faction close to him in several previous elections. She recounted that these two strangers, whom she referred to as 'foreigners,' came to her office at the university and spoke about the battles of 'Karabala 4 and 5' to show they had been with her father, warning that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani would be 'assassinated' in a manner that would appear to be 'natural death.' She had made similar claims in December of the previous year, which Ali Shamkhani, an advisor to the Supreme Leader, stated that explanations had been provided to the Hashemi family regarding this matter. Shamkhani, who was the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council at the time of Hashemi Rafsanjani's death, said in an interview with Nour News, a media outlet close to the council, that 'in several sessions with the presence of the family members of the late Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the report of the special committee was fully explained and answers were provided to the questions and ambiguities that some family members had.' However, Fatemeh Hashemi stated, 'My father called me himself at noon. I think he knew something was going to happen to him because he had heard news that they wanted to harm him.' Previously, Faezah Hashemi, another daughter of Hashemi Rafsanjani, had also stated that in a meeting with several members of the Supreme National Security Council, it was announced to the family that there were '10 times the permissible limit of radioactivity' in her father's body. Nevertheless, Mohammad Hashemi, the brother of Mr. Rafsanjani, denied the claims of 'assassination' or 'suffocation' of Hashemi Rafsanjani. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former head of the Expediency Council and an influential figure in the Islamic Republic, passed away on January 8, 2017, at the age of 82. Official and government news reported that the cause of his death was cardiac arrest. Fatemeh Hashemi further stated that her father later wrote in his notes that in 2016 he had been informed that a four-member committee was working against him. After his death, one of his office members mentioned that someone had suggested executing him. She also raised concerns about the 'suspicious' head of her father's protection team and the 'delay in assistance' from some members of the protective team and the head of Mr. Hashemi's team at the time of his death. Fatemeh Hashemi referenced a quote from Masih Mohajeri, the editor-in-chief of the 'Jomhouri Eslami' newspaper, who mentioned that Hashemi Rafsanjani took him to another room in the museum house to discuss these threats privately because 'their conversations were being monitored.' Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani played a significant role in the rise of Ali Khamenei to leadership after the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, but in the years leading up to his death, he was gradually sidelined from the political scene to the extent that his candidacy for the 2013 presidential election was rejected.