Iran Snapshot: Will Rafsanjani Use Political Prisoners to Make a New Move?

A group of 16 Iranian political prisoners, including prominent reformist politicians Mohsen Aminzadeh and Mostafa Tajzadeh and journalists Bahman Ahmadi Amoui and Mohammad Nourizad have written an open letter to former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, describing their continued incarceration “in violation of the law” and in the “framework of settling political accounts”.

Addressing Rafsanjani in his role as head of the Expediency Council, the detainees said the treatment of political activists in the Islamic Republic today “bears no sign of the principles of the Revolution and its constitution". They maintain that their charges are fabricated and the “heavy sentences and restrictions that they have been handed are part of a political and security plan by the establishment to completely erase the political opposition”.

The prisoners compared the current situation to the political detentions before the 1979 Revolution, with officials forcing prisoners to give false confessions and then issuing sentences based on them: “The issued sentences in view of level and kind of punishment seem to indicate that they have been set by security officials based on their own ideas and personal preference, and relayed to the judges.”

In September, Rafsanjani made a public display of meeting the families of political prisoners to hear their complaints. More significantly, he approached the Supreme Leader with the files of 22 detainees, asking Ayatollah Khamenei to deal with allegations of abuse and torture. He was rebuffed on that occasion.

So is this the prelude to a renewed Rafsanjani initiative? On Friday he preferred, via his website, to highlight a call for Iran to develop 20 million Basiji to defend the nation.

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