Hassan Firouzabadi: The Lavasan Villa Was Given to Me by the Leader's Order

Hassan Firouzabadi, in response to reports about not vacating a 10,000 square meter villa, stated that this building was handed over to him by the Leader of the Islamic Republic as the 'top secret office' of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and that he has not 'received any order' to vacate it. The former Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces announced on Tuesday, June 18, that this building in Lavasan at the beginning of the Kandeh road was handed over to him by the Leader of the Islamic Republic. According to Mr. Firouzabadi, this building has been used as the 'top secret office of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces' for the past 22 years. He also wrote that this building is a 'ruin with about four ordinary rooms and without any facilities, under a roof that dates back about 70 to 100 years.' Mr. Firouzabadi emphasized that he has not 'received any judicial order or directive from the Leader of the Islamic Republic to vacate this villa.' Meanwhile, the IRNA news agency reported that if the reports about this villa are correct, 'the minimum value of the property where Brigadier General Firouzabadi resides is about 100 billion tomans.' The 'Justice-Seeking Student Movement' on June 17 sent a letter to the Tehran prosecutor demanding the return of a confiscated '10,000 square meter' villa from the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran, claiming that the Leader of the Islamic Republic has 'issued orders to vacate this villa twice.' According to this conservative group, 'legal actions and a vacate order have also been obtained from the courts,' but the police, as the judicial authority, 'have not yet taken action to enforce this order and vacate the mentioned property.' However, Hossein Rahimi, the commander of the Tehran police, stated that 'no order in this regard has reached the police.' The head of the Tehran judiciary also mentioned that no request for the vacating of this building had been previously submitted to the judiciary. Gholamhossein Esmaeili announced that on Tuesday, a request to vacate this building was sent to the Lavasan judiciary, and the court will address this request next week. According to reports, the ownership of this villa is under the 'Executive Headquarters of Imam's Command,' an economic institution affiliated with the Leader of the Islamic Republic. Some social media users have written that the mentioned villa belonged to Ashraf Pahlavi, the sister of Mohammad Reza Shah, and was confiscated after the 1979 revolution. After the February 1979 revolution in Iran, in addition to buildings belonging to the relatives of Mohammad Reza Shah and former government officials, many buildings and properties related to Bahá'ís and Jews were confiscated, and their ownership was transferred to foundations affiliated with the Leader of the Islamic Republic. The ownership of some of these buildings was granted to officials of the Islamic Republic, while some were made available to them for free use. Meanwhile, the IRNA news agency in its report wrote: 'The question arises whether Firouzabadi is the only official using these properties and whether his criticism is unrelated to his political positions?' Firouzabadi is on the European Union's human rights sanctions list, which was imposed after the crackdown on protesters following the 2009 presidential election results and has been extended since then.