Rafsanjani's Family Urges Iranian Authorities to Release his Daughter

Faezeh Rafsanjani, daughter of the former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (file photo: AFP)
Faezeh Rafsanjani, daughter of the former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (file photo: AFP)
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Rafsanjani's Family Urges Iranian Authorities to Release his Daughter

Faezeh Rafsanjani, daughter of the former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (file photo: AFP)
Faezeh Rafsanjani, daughter of the former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (file photo: AFP)

The family of the former Iranian president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, demanded the release of his daughter, Faezeh, who was arrested by the authorities last September on charges of incitement to protest.

The Jamaran website, affiliated with the office of the first Supreme Leader Khomeini, reported that the family said they were pressured by the "accusation" of being the sons of Rafsanjani, adding that it was possible to solve the situation by releasing women from political prisons, including their sister Faezeh.

Faezeh Hashemi was among 30 Iranian female prisoners who signed a memo last month calling on the Iranian authorities to stop the execution of demonstrators.

Iranian authorities released political activists after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei pardoned them earlier this month, including director Mohammed Rasoulof, French-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, and activist Farhad Meysami.

The reformist Etemad newspaper said that the pardon had included 50 detained activists.

The released detainees were asked to "express their remorse" in writing, but most released activists issued statements confirming they did not agree to these conditions.

Faezeh Hashemi sent a message addressing the Chief Justice of Iran, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, asserting she would continue her activities if released.

Her sister, Fatemeh, sparked controversy last month when she posted a video on the seventh anniversary of her father's death, implicitly repeating the suspicions about her father's death.

Rafsanjani died of a heart attack while swimming in a pool in northern Tehran.

In January, the Iranian authorities released Mehdi, Rafsanjani's son, after more than seven years in prison. He was convicted of fraud, embezzlement, and undermining national security in August 2015.

He considered at the time that the sentence was "politically motivated."



ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
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ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)

Judges at the International Criminal Court want Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest earlier this month.

In a filing released late Wednesday, The Hague-based court initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary after the country gave Netanyahu a red carpet welcome despite an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

During the visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his country would quit the court, claiming on state radio that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said at the time, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

Judges at the ICC have previously dismissed similar arguments.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary’s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before his arrival, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on the non-compliance proceedings.

Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the sole non-signatory within the 27-member European Union. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

Hungary has until May 23 to submit evidence in its defense.