The Daughters of Rahimi: Our Father's 1.2 Billion Tomans Were Spent on Elections

The children of Mohammad Reza Rahimi, the former first vice president of Iran, published a letter denying allegations against their father regarding receiving a bribe of 1.2 billion tomans, stating that all this money was spent on the parliamentary elections. This letter was published on Thursday, June 18, shortly after the death of Mr. Rahimi's wife, on the website 'Dolat Bahar,' associated with supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and it refutes financial allegations against this former Iranian official. Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who served as the first vice president under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the tenth government, was taken to Evin Prison to serve a five-year sentence in late February. However, he has consistently denied financial allegations against him, claiming that these accusations are related to the eighth parliamentary elections and that he gave the 1.2 billion tomans he received from a person named Jaber Abdali to conservative candidates in the elections. Conservatives supporting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad's government held the majority in this parliament. In the letter from Hoda and Hanieh Rahimi, Mohammad Reza Rahimi's daughters, it states: 'Our father is currently serving his sentence for receiving 1.2 billion tomans or slightly more or less from an individual and spending all of it during the parliamentary elections, a practice that has unfortunately been common in all parliamentary terms.' Mr. Rahimi was the governor of Kurdistan from 1993 to 1997, and his daughters' letter is addressed to the people of Kurdistan. The letter also mentions that the reason for the death of Mohammad Reza Rahimi's wife was the announcement of Mr. Rahimi's prison sentence by the Islamic Republic of Iran's state television, which led to her heart disease and stroke. According to Mr. Rahimi's children, the wave of accusations against him began when he 'started his last management experience.' Previously, Mohammad Reza Rahimi had written in a letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding his prison sentence that 'the convicted Rahimi today is paying for your stubbornness and occasional disgrace.' Mr. Rahimi is one of the figures whose name has repeatedly come up in discussions about embezzlement from Iran Insurance, and some members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly have accused him of being involved in this embezzlement. The letter from Mr. Rahimi's children is published at a time when, in recent months, the Iranian Minister of Interior's remarks about the entry of 'dirty money' from drug trafficking into Iranian politics and especially elections have received widespread attention among political factions.