Publication of Two Letters from Ahmadinejad to Khamenei: We Have Had No Freedom for 40 Years

The former President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in two letters to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, severely criticized the state of the country and called for structural reforms in several institutions, including the Guardian Council and the judiciary, the resolution of parallel institutions, the establishment of a constitutional court, and the withdrawal of armed forces from political and economic affairs. These letters were written on February 19 and March 11, after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Ahmadinejad of 'doing the enemy's work inside' the country. According to the 'Dolat Bahar' website, Ahmadinejad wrote in his February 19 letter: 'It has been implied that you have explicitly and implicitly told me that I have no right to speak on the main issues of the country and must remain silent.' He added, 'If those who have held responsibility for 8 years are not allowed to speak, will others not also be silenced and held accountable?' The former president emphasized that 'public dissatisfaction with the performance of the system is very high and serious, and is rapidly spreading to the essence of the revolution.' In another part of this letter, Ahmadinejad wrote that 'there are injustices in government institutions that are sufficient to overthrow a great empire.' He stressed that 'the vast majority of the nation seeks fundamental changes. Some are pursuing change even through very radical methods and conflict, while others, fearing the conditions of some regional countries and the harm to the country and people, are seeking other methods. It is clear that the best way is to implement fundamental reforms within the system.' Ahmadinejad's letter was written after the protests in December, during which some protesters shouted slogans against all officials of the Islamic Republic, and later, some supporters of the Pahlavi dynasty called for a change of government. These letters were published after the arrest of Hamid Baghaei and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, two of his closest associates. In his February 19 letter, Ahmadinejad also referred to the 'securitization and closure of the country's atmosphere' as one of the policies that, 'along with numerous structural problems, has led to the continuation and deepening of problems and the accumulation of public dissatisfaction.' Ahmadinejad also stated that 'now, after four decades, not only is there no news of political freedom, but freedom in other areas has also faded away. The government and security agencies have complete control over cultural, social, and economic spheres.' He emphasized that 'an agent of the Ministry of Intelligence or the IRGC Intelligence Organization or the judiciary's security can ruin a cultural, social, or economic activist without valid reason and for exploitation, and that activist will have no recourse.' Ahmadinejad's protest against the security atmosphere comes at a time when during his presidency, especially after the protests following the 2009 presidential election, hundreds of political and social activists were arrested, particularly by the Ministry of Intelligence under his supervision. Other criticisms from Ahmadinejad include the economic activities of 'most senior officials' of the government, 'election engineering by the Guardian Council,' 'the judiciary being exempt from oversight,' 'the multiplicity of parallel oversight bodies,' and 'the increasing interference of the government in people's lives.' In this letter, the former president called for structural reforms of the Guardian Council and the judiciary, a 'decisive prohibition' on the armed forces and security institutions from interfering in political affairs, the resolution of parallel institutions, a review of the country's decision-making system, a review of the political organization of the country, and the establishment of a constitutional court. On March 11, Ahmadinejad also published a summary of his letter to the Supreme Leader, in which he called for the dismissal of the head of the judiciary and 'immediate and free elections' in the country without the interference of 'law enforcement agencies' and 'the engineering of the Guardian Council,' and 'issuing orders for the freedom and non-prosecution' of opponents and critics of the Islamic Republic and its leader. In his March 11 letter, Ahmadinejad addressed Ayatollah Khamenei, stating that the 15 Khordad Foundation, the Foundation of the Oppressed, the Executive Headquarters of Imam's Command, the Foundation of the IRGC, the Foundation of the Army, the Foundation of the Basij, the Foundation of the Ministry of Defense, and the economic section of the Imam's Relief Committee 'have more than 700 trillion tomans in wealth that the people are unaware of regarding their reports of work, income, and expenditure.' He emphasized that the cultural institutions affiliated with the Supreme Leader 'merely receive budgets, but their criteria and programs for supporting or not supporting a cultural and intellectual endeavor are not clear to everyone.' The former president also called for the withdrawal of military institutions from economic activities. In July 2011, criticizing the unregulated import of goods through illegal channels, he used the term 'our own smuggler brothers,' stating that they have made holes wherever they wanted and import goods from there. At that time, experts speculated that Ahmadinejad's references were aimed at the economic activities of the IRGC, but Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRGC, dismissed those remarks as a 'diversionary issue.' Many of Iran's infrastructure and development projects in various sectors, including energy, telecommunications, transportation, and dam construction, have been awarded to the IRGC's Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters with government approval and without tender procedures in recent years. This headquarters has sought to acquire several large new contracts in the oil and shipbuilding sectors in recent years and has criticized the government for not awarding these contracts to this institution. Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, also criticized the presence of military institutions in Iran's economy in early July of this year, stating, 'We handed over part of the economy from a government without guns to a government with guns.' This statement provoked a strong reaction from a range of IRGC officials who accused Rouhani of attempting to weaken the IRGC.