The Mystery of Sadegh Mahsouli's Wealth, Senior IRGC Commander

The newspaper has dedicated its headline and photo to Sadegh Mahsouli, a senior commander of the IRGC and Minister of Interior in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, reporting under the title "The Mystery of a Former Minister's Wealth" that "Sadegh Mahsouli stated in a student meeting that he has not received a single rial from the previous government. The former Minister of Interior, who was the wealthiest member of Ahmadinejad's cabinet, also claimed that his wealth is the result of his own efforts. Despite all this, he remains in the spotlight due to an oil swap case. The newspaper recalls that "Sadegh Mahsouli was Ahmadinejad's Minister of Interior and the executor of the 2009 elections" and was "the wealthiest minister in a government that claimed to live simply," while "in 2005, Mahsouli's wealth was estimated at 160 million dollars." The newspaper Etemad emphasizes the need for "addressing the demands of political prisoners" in its front page on the twelfth of Dey, stating: "On Saturday, after the escalation of the hunger strike of two political prisoners, namely Arash Sadeghi and Ali Shariati, Elias Hazrati, a reformist representative from Tehran, wrote a letter to the head of the judiciary, calling for more attention to the implementation of the political crime law, its full execution, and addressing the situation of these two individuals." According to this newspaper, Elias Hazrati wrote in his letter to the head of the judiciary: "As you are aware, the political crime law was passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly very late, and unfortunately, it has not been implemented for anyone yet. The result of such performance is that those who are actually considered political criminals are being tried as security defendants and are in prison. These individuals have been deprived of their constitutional rights and are currently in prison under conditions where their rights have been violated. To compensate for this violated right, it is appropriate for their trials to be renewed and for their punishments to be mitigated." Hazrati further wrote to Sadegh Larijani: "Unfortunately, the neglect of the legal demands of these prisoners has led some of them to go on hunger strike to have their requests heard; that is, they have protested the current situation by endangering their lives and health. Since the judiciary and prison officials are responsible for ensuring the health of prisoners, it is appropriate to issue necessary orders to address the demands of the two political prisoners who have gone on hunger strike, Mr. Arash Sadeghi and Mr. Ali Shariati, so that no harm comes to them and if any of their rights have been violated, they are restored." The representative from Tehran in the tenth parliament emphasized that "it is not appropriate for the Islamic Republic to be accused of human rights violations and prisoner rights violations on a global scale due to a handful of political prisoners, creating an unfavorable image of it for the world," and in his letter to the head of the judiciary, he wrote: "As a representative of the honorable people in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, I felt it was my duty to remind you of this matter so that with your explicit and swift order, appropriate action can be taken in this regard and the lives of the two prisoners are not endangered due to their forced hunger strike." Meanwhile, the newspaper Iran, close to the government, reported that on Saturday, Amir Reisi, the lawyer for Arash Sadeghi, announced that "on Saturday, he was contacted by the Tehran prosecutor's office and was asked to attend the prison and post bail to facilitate Arash Sadeghi's release" and "according to the announcement from the prosecutor's office, Arash Sadeghi will be granted medical leave and his wife Golrokh Iraei will also be granted leave." The Iran newspaper also reported that according to Mehdi Riahi, the brother of Tahereh Riahi, the social secretary of the Borna news agency who was recently arrested, "my sister was summoned as a witness and previously had no history of any arrest." This newspaper quoted Riahi's brother as saying: "According to my sister's colleagues at Borna news agency, she was summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence and her case is being investigated at the Culture and Media Court, and the investigating judge is very knowledgeable and behaves with Islamic courtesy and is very polite and friendly, and they are examining the issues." The newspaper Aftab Yazd dedicated its front page to a report on government officials expressing opinions against each other, titled "Six Own Goals by Government Officials," stating: "On Saturday, Bijan Zangeneh, the Minister of Oil, spoke against Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, the Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade, in the open session of the parliament." This newspaper pointed out that "making internal cabinet disputes public by the politicians of moderation and hope has a precedent," emphasizing that "the statesmen of Hassan Rouhani are on the lookout to occasionally convey their differences of opinion through official platforms to the public so that the principlists can use it to create a banner against the government." Aftab Yazd, referring to the contradictory statements or disagreements among senior officials of Hassan Rouhani's government on issues such as "Engineering System," "Karsent Contract," "Banking Sanctions," "Free Zones," and "Health Transformation Plan," wrote about the disagreement between the Ministers of Oil and Industry, Mine, and Trade over the feedstock prices for petrochemicals, stating: "On Saturday, the sixth own goal was scored by Bijan Zangeneh and Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, with the Minister of Oil criticizing the Minister of Industry for interfering in areas where he has no expertise, stating that legally, Nematzadeh should not interfere in areas where he lacks specialization." The newspaper Javan, close to the IRGC, also referred to the disagreement among government officials as "Ministerial Disputes in the Moderation Government," stating: "A government that wants to manage a country has been embroiled in disputes within its cabinet for some time now." This newspaper assessed the internal conflicts of the eleventh government as stemming from "a war of interests," stating: "For some, it is a personal benefit and for others, it is a power benefit, which is also a type of personal benefit." The Javan newspaper also wrote: "With the written order of the President regarding placing the resources of the health insurance share of workers in a separate account for direct oversight by the presidential office, the disputes between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Welfare have entered a new phase, to the extent that even whispers of the resignation of Taghi Nourbakhsh, the head of the Social Security Organization, have been heard due to this government decision. All of these are parts of a scenario that has been executed in front of cameras and media outputs, but behind the scenes of the quarrel between the Ministries of Welfare and Health, it seems there are other issues that appear to be unrelated to the countdown to next year's elections. A scenario that seeks to advance a new chess piece in the government's backyard." The newspaper Jahan San'at reported on its front page about "The Retreat of Dollar Prices," stating: "On the first working day of the current week, the dollar returned to a price level below four thousand tomans, hovering in the three thousand tomans range." According to this newspaper, "After a rise of over 500 tomans in the dollar price over the past two months, the head of the Central Bank promised in a joint session of the government and parliament that the dollar would decrease in the coming days and efforts would be made to bring its price to 3800 tomans, and this positive signal to the currency market caused the dollar to once again show a favorable response in the three thousand tomans range." The newspaper Shahrvand reported in a piece titled "Smoke and Fire" that "FIFA's medical center announced that 20 percent of Iranian footballers smoke cigarettes and 50 percent consume hookah." FIFA's medical center, after examining survey results from Premier League players, published statistics that surprised everyone. Part of this report states: "Based on statistical evaluations, it seems that the prevalence of smoking among players, according to their own statements, is approximately 20 percent. With statistical analysis, the prevalence of hookah consumption among players was found to be around 50 percent." This newspaper, citing the results of this survey, stated: "This approximate statistic shows that Iranian players have a significant inclination towards tobacco in their personal lives." According to this newspaper, "The use of tobacco by footballers has long been one of the serious controversies in Iranian football, and this time FIFA's medical center has fueled this issue. The publication of a report by FIFA's medical center in Iran (IFMAR) regarding the extent of cigarette and hookah use among Premier League players has caused society's view of this group to become more negative than before, although "it is unclear how much one can rely on the statistics published by IFMAR, but in any case, this could be a serious warning for Iranian football."