Kalameh: New Six-Month Prison Sentence Issued for Faezah Hashemi

The Kalameh website reported that Faezah Hashemi, a political activist and daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been sentenced to six months in prison for an interview regarding the 'personal' bank accounts of the head of the judiciary. This sentence was issued by Branch 1060 of the Criminal Court 2 at the Government Employees Judicial Complex on Friday, March 17. According to the report, Farshid Dehghani, the head of the court, stated that the charge against Faezah Hashemi was 'spreading falsehoods with the intent to disturb public opinion regarding the judiciary and the IRGC, as well as defaming the Islamic Republic system.' The Kalameh website noted that this case was opened following Faezah Hashemi's comments about the accounts of the head of the judiciary, with the judiciary and the IRGC as the complainants. If the news of the prison sentence for Faezah Hashemi is confirmed, it is likely that this news will be analyzed alongside reports that several managers of Telegram channels close to reformists and government supporters have been arrested in recent days. Additionally, Morad Saqafi, the editor-in-chief of the Goftogu magazine, Ehsan Mazandarani, the former editor-in-chief of the Farhikhtegan newspaper, and Hengameh Shahidi, a journalist and political activist, have also been arrested in the past two weeks. Some political activists and analysts have linked these arrests to the presidential and council elections in 2017, and Hesameddin Ashna, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani, confirmed this view in several tweets titled 'A Simple Plan for a Deceptive Operation.' In December of this year, Faezah Hashemi described the Tehran prosecutor's threat regarding action against those disseminating reports about the judiciary's deposits into her 'personal' account as 'illegal' during an interview with the internet television 'Dar TV.' She also defended the remarks of Mahmoud Sadeghi, a Tehran representative in parliament, and his request for an explanation from the head of the judiciary regarding these accounts. At that time, the Mizan news agency, affiliated with the judiciary, criticized Faezah Hashemi's interview. Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, also threatened on Saturday, December 6, that interviews by some individuals with foreign internet television and support for those disseminating 'false news' about the judiciary's deposits into the 'personal account' of its head are 'subject to legal prosecution.' One day after this threat from the Tehran prosecutor, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the first deputy of the judiciary, threatened that the Supreme National Security Council has banned interviews with Persian-language networks abroad and that interviewees with these networks will be prosecuted. Faezah Hashemi was also imprisoned for six months after the 2009 elections. Mehdi Hashemi, another child of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been serving a ten-year prison sentence in Evin prison since August 9 of this year. He had been on leave after his father's death but returned to prison after a while.