As the defiant Iranian opposition continues widespread street protests, influential cleric and official Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani comes under fire, allegedly for playing a role in the post-election developments. In pre-election debates, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the heavyweight politician and his family of corruption as well as conspiring with former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi against the incumbent. Ayatollah Rafsanjani, himself a two-time former president, urged Ahmadinejad to issue an official apology for the corruption charges to prevent "legal actions". Although the cleric did not endorse any candidate, some Principlists alleged that Rafsanjani and his family were financially supporting Mousavi.
On July 17, the influential cleric, in his first Friday prayers sermon since the June 12 election, urged officials to release opposition figures and those who protested the election result as a means to create national "unity". The ruling elite, however, attacked him for not condemning the street riots and the opposition's defiance.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the top legislative body, on Friday accused Rafsanjani of orchestrating the post-election events after he lost the 9th presidential election in 2005. "After defeat was inflicted on a certain figure four years ago, those who could not stand a young man in power colluded against him," Jannati was quoted by the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) as saying. "Since then, they have planned to avenge (their loss)."
Ahmadinejad defeated Rafsanjani by some 7 million votes in the run-off of the 2005 election.
On Saturday, as a mass trial against opposition figures and protesters opened in Tehran, Mohammad-Ali Abtahi -- a leading Reformist -- allegedly accused Rafsanjani of colluding against the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Abtahi, according to a report carried by Fars News Agency, claimed Mousavi, former president Mohammad Khatami and Rafsanjani had taken an "oath" not to abandon each other as they prepared to stage a "Velvet Revolution".
Abtahi echoed Jannati's remarks that Rafsanjani, who currently heads both the top political arbitration body and the clerical body, sought to avenge his 2005 presidential defeat to Ahmadinejad.
Although the accounts of confessions made in the court were challenged by Reformist lawmakers and figures, Tehran Majlis representative Hamid Rasayi said the trial paved the way for officials to prosecute the "real" riot leaders.