Summoning of Five Clerics to Court Following Anti-President Slogans at Feyziyeh Gathering

On Thursday, September 22, the Special Court for Clergy in Qom announced that following a "complaint" from the Legal Deputy of the Presidency against participants in the protest gathering at the Feyziyeh School, five individuals have been summoned. During the controversial gathering on August 25 at the Feyziyeh School in Qom, which protested against "economic corruption," several attendees shouted anti-government slogans and held threatening signs against Hassan Rouhani. Among these was a sign reading "Oh you who advocate negotiation, the Farah Pool awaits you," which implied a threat to Rouhani's life, reminiscent of the fate of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Discernment Council, died on January 8, 2017, from a heart attack while swimming. However, this sign also implicitly labeled Rafsanjani's death as a "murder" and threatened Rouhani with "murder." Following widespread criticism of this sign, the Special Court for Clergy issued a statement announcing the telephone summoning of five individuals "related" to this gathering. The statement indicated that two of these individuals were released, while three others were detained due to their inability to provide bail, but were released less than 24 hours later. According to the official news agency of the Iranian judiciary, Mizan, the Special Court for Clergy emphasized that these individuals were summoned following "the complaint of the Legal Deputy of the Presidency and the Secretary of the Security Council, as well as reports from security and intelligence agencies in the province, regarding a limited number of participants in the protest gathering at the Feyziyeh School." Meanwhile, Laya Janidi, the Legal Deputy of the President, denied the government's complaint against these individuals, and the news website Khabar Online referred to the government's complaint in the statement from the Clergy Court and its highlighting by government-opposing media as "marginalization." In an interview with this website, Janidi stated that "the evident crime, which is a threat to murder, has a public aspect. The judiciary has an obligation to investigate, and judicial officials have confirmed the visibility of the crime and announced their entry into the matter." She added, "The government filed its complaint in general in the judiciary. I saw the last draft of the complaint that our manager signed and sent; there was no name in it." Janidi further stated, "We included in the text sent to the judiciary that we are filing a complaint against all those involved in that incident. Because it is unlikely to be an individual act, therefore anyone involved is included in this complaint." She interpreted the implicit threat against Hassan Rouhani at the Feyziyeh School as follows: "Such events are not even harsh criticism anymore. Rather, it is a public crime." The statement from the Special Court for Clergy also described the published news regarding the "method of transfer" of the five summoned clerics and the "conduct of the officers" towards them as "unrelated" to the Special Court for Clergy, stating that this court would, however, pursue the "claimed issue" in this regard. This mention in the statement came as several Hezbollah activists and political figures from the Stability Front raised criticisms regarding the summoning, transfer method, and detention of these five clerics in prison. Among them, Hamid Rasai, a former member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and a staunch opponent of Rouhani's government, tweeted: "The use of blindfolds, handcuffs, and solitary confinement for five clerics participating in the legal gathering at Feyziyeh, which was held in protest against the chaotic economic situation and the government's inaction, based on a complaint from Hassan Rouhani's government and under the pretext of the sign 'the Farah Pool awaits you,' really raises questions! Why?" Vahid Pouryamin, a presenter from the Ofogh television network, also tweeted to Ebrahim Raisi, the Attorney General of the Special Clergy Court: "The detention of several revolutionary clerics with handcuffs and blindfolds and their solitary confinement merely for holding a clerical meeting in a closed environment at the Feyziyeh School in Qom is a strange, concerning act, and especially from your subordinate institution, it is unacceptable. You must explain this to the people and the seminary." Abdolhossein Khosropanah, the head of the Wisdom and Philosophy Institute, also tweeted that "the gathering of clerics at Feyziyeh was aimed at defending the rights of the people, which was harmed by one placard and two incorrect sentences from the speaker, but filing a complaint against young clerics and judicial action against them undermines the revolution and revolutionary spirit." The slogans from the August 25 gathering at the Feyziyeh School in Qom, held by a group of clerics protesting against "economic corruption" under the title "Demand for Economic Justice," overshadowed the main purpose of the gathering. In addition to the threat against Hassan Rouhani, other slogans such as "Oh British mercenary, your deceit is no longer colorful" and "British student, negotiation is not the key" also implicitly referred to the President. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denied any involvement of its forces in organizing this gathering, and although Hossein Tayebi Far, the commander of the special clerics brigade known as the "Imam Sadiq Brigade," was one of the speakers at this event, the IRGC claimed that "based on available evidence and indications," this gathering was "spontaneously organized." Fatemeh Hashemi, the daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also stated after this gathering that following up on these placards could "clarify the ambiguities surrounding her father's suspicious death," which "has remained unanswered despite the family's inquiries." Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, also described this gathering as indicative of the "decline" of a part of the seminary.