Former Iranian president Rafsanjani's son freed after seven years in jail

Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, 53, was convicted in 2015 of fraud, embezzlement and undermining national security, charges that he has previously denounced as ‘politically motivated’

TEHRAN, Iran — A son of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been freed after serving more than seven years of a 10-year jail sentence for fraud, Iranian media reported Wednesday.

Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, 53, left Tehran’s Evin Prison late Tuesday, his lawyer Vahid Abolmaali said, quoted by the ISNA news agency.

State prosecutors said his release was “conditional,” ISNA reported.

Hashemi Rafsanjani was convicted of fraud, embezzlement and undermining national security in August 2015, charges he had previously denounced as “politically motivated.”

He had served as a senior official in Iran’s oil sector in the mid-2000s, a period when Norway’s Statoil and French energy company Total were suspected of paying bribes to obtain access to the Islamic Republic’s hydrocarbon reserves.

In 2018, a Paris criminal court found Total guilty of “corruption of a foreign public agent” for payments made to Hashemi Rafsanjani for help in securing rights to the huge South Pars offshore gas field which Iran shares with Qatar in the Gulf.

Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, son of the Former President & kinda the vice supreme leader of Iran has been released from jail#Iran pic.twitter.com/RE2zu4CXC7

— Amirdaryoush (@amirdaryoush) January 17, 2023

In 2009, Hashemi Rafsanjani aroused the anger of conservatives by forming a “vote protection committee” for that year’s presidential election.

He actively supported reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, whose allegations of large-scale fraud in favor of populist incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prompted mass protests.

Mehdi’s father, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, served as president from 1989 to 1997 and was regarded as a moderate who supported improving ties with the West.

Earlier this month, Rafsanjani’s daughter Faezeh Hashemi was sentenced to five years in prison for “collusion against the security of the country.”

#FaezehHashemi sentenced to 5 years in prison. Daughter of former President & 1 of the founding fathers of #Iran – Akbar Hashemi #Rafsanjani, Faezeh was indicted in 2022 for going against the system. She has been jailed several times earlier for making anti-government statements. pic.twitter.com/ZRU192DKzO

— Nishit Doshi (@NishitDoshi144) January 10, 2023

She was arrested in September and convicted of inciting Tehran residents to join protests over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, who had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.