Hassan Rouhani's Brother Calls for Response to Allegations from Parliament Representatives

A member of the Iranian Parliament's presiding board stated on Tuesday, February 1, that Hossein Fereydoun, the brother of Iran's president, has written a letter to the Speaker of the Parliament. He said, "Mr. Fereydoun has objected in a letter to the Speaker regarding the issues attributed to him in the warnings from some parliament representatives to Mr. Rouhani." According to Tasnim News Agency, Akbar Ranjbarzadeh mentioned that Hossein Fereydoun requested that his letter be read in the Parliament chamber. He stated, "A number of parliament representatives have documents regarding some accusations made against the president's brother, and the reading of this letter in the Parliament will be postponed until after the representatives' documents are reviewed." He noted, "The representatives who signed the warning letter to the president regarding the accusations against his brother claim that there are valid accusations against Mr. Fereydoun, and the judiciary has explicitly stated them, and this is not considered slander or false attribution." Ranjbarzadeh said, "These documents will be reviewed by the presiding board of the Parliament, and if the representatives' statements are consistent with the documents, according to Article 78 of the Parliament's internal regulations, Mr. Fereydoun's letter will not be read in the Parliament chamber." According to Article 78, if the presiding board determines that "the warning representatives have made an unjust attribution to an individual, their letter will be read." Some conservative parliament representatives have accused Hassan Rouhani's brother of connections with Rasoul Daniyalzadeh. Reports indicate that Rasoul Daniyalzadeh, a major bank debtor, was arrested on January 15. In this regard, Hossein Ali Haji Deligani, a representative from Shahinshahr, stated on January 22 that Rasoul Daniyalzadeh "gifted a house worth 16 billion tomans to Hossein Fereydoun's wife." On January 5, 46 conservative representatives sent a letter accusing Hossein Fereydoun of "economic corruption" and requested the president to introduce his brother to the judiciary. In this context, Mohammad Ismail Saeidi, a representative from Tabriz, stated on January 24 that "we sent a document to the president showing that Daniyalzadeh bought a residential unit in 2014 in the name of Mr. Fereydoun's wife for 14 billion tomans in northern Tehran." Previously, Javad Karimi Qodosi and Hossein Ali Haji Deligani, two signatories of this letter, had called for the arrest of Hossein Fereydoun and Mohammad Nahavandian, the head of Hassan Rouhani's office, in an interview with Basij News. In response to these accusations, Hossein Fereydoun announced that he has filed a complaint against several representatives who raised the accusation of "financial corruption" against him. Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Masoud Pezeshkian, criticized what he called the "slander of the president's close associates" by "some conservative media" and called for the judiciary to take action against the accusers. According to ILNA News Agency, Pezeshkian urged the judiciary to "ask the accusers to submit their cases for review to the judiciary if they have any" and added, "The judiciary should take action against these individuals if they do not have documented cases or their documents are not substantiated; one cannot accuse anyone without evidence." The Deputy Speaker noted, "It is not right to make accusations without a judicial ruling. If I have committed an offense and am accused of something, the judiciary has no right to introduce me as a convict; rather, my accusations should be addressed, and if proven, the judiciary should take action against these offenses, not that accusations are made in the media." This reformist representative's comments referred to statements made by Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the judiciary spokesperson, on January 22. This judicial official stated that "the connection between Rasoul Daniyalzadeh and Hossein Fereydoun is quite evident" but added that "the nature of this connection and their actions are not clear and we must wait for the results of the investigations into this case." He further stated, "I personally have been and am in favor of some defendants being tried publicly, and the media should be allowed to publish their photos, accusations, and court details." Following this, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesperson, on January 25, regarding the financial corruption accusations against Hossein Fereydoun, warned that "making accusations without proving a crime is not right and has a negative impact on public opinion." According to ISNA News Agency, in response to the question of whether the government intends to respond to the accusations against Hossein Fereydoun, he said, "Previously, in the case of Babak Zanjani, he was referred to as 'B.Z.' but now Hossein Fereydoun's name is explicitly mentioned." Mohammad Baqer Nobakht added, "The judiciary is independent and has sufficient motivation to deal with anyone who commits a crime, and there is no need for the representatives' letter-writing efforts."