The daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has accused domestic parties inside Iran of orchestrating his death, dismissing speculation that Israel or Russia might have been involved.
Her comments come two weeks after the Rafsanjani family condemned remarks by Rahim Safavi, senior military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who made a cryptic reference to “death in the swimming pool.”
The judiciary’s official news agency Mizan reported that a legal case had been opened against Faezeh Hashemi, noting that she had been summoned to court to explain her statements about her father’s death.
Rafsanjani, a key power broker who headed the Expediency Council and played a central role in consolidating clerical rule after the 1979 revolution, died in January 2017 at the age of 82. His death has resurfaced as a topic of debate following Safavi’s comments -at a funeral for a senior Revolutionary Guard commander- attributing it to a heart attack while swimming.
During that speech, Safavi said he hoped to die as a martyr rather than “in bed or in a swimming pool.” His words, delivered with a smile and captured on video by the student news agency Daneshjoo, drew attention for appearing to allude to Rafsanjani’s mysterious death.
Safavi said he wished for an end like that of Qassem Soleimani, killed in a US strike in 2020, or Mohammad Bagheri, who died in an Israeli attack in June, or Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In a podcast interview, reformist activist Faezeh Hashemi said she believes her father was assassinated by domestic forces.
“Some people think Israel or Russia were behind it, but I believe it was internal,” she said, contradicting the official narrative of a natural death. She argued that her father’s political stances, including his defense of public freedoms and criticism of domestic policies, made him a target. “The evidence clearly points to internal actors within the system,” she said, describing her father as an “obstacle” to factions seeking to sideline him.
According to the government’s official account, Rafsanjani suffered a sudden heart attack while swimming alone in a pool reserved for senior officials near the Saadabad Presidential Complex in northern Tehran. The absence of his usual medical team at the scene drew public scrutiny after the health minister at the time confirmed they were not present when the incident occurred.
In response to Safavi’s comments, Rafsanjani’s son Mohsen Hashemi published an open letter expressing outrage, saying his remarks had “deeply offended those who loved Rafsanjani.” He reminded Safavi that although the National Security Council conducted an inquiry, its conclusions “failed to convince either the family or former President Hassan Rouhani.”
Rafsanjani’s daughter Fatemeh Hashemi also lashed out at Safavi, saying that “martyrdom can occur even in a swimming pool, because it is the enemy who chooses the place of martyrdom.”
Safavi’s comments have been interpreted in Iranian political circles as a veiled warning to Rouhani, who has recently stepped up his criticism of the regime, particularly after the reinstatement of UN sanctions this month. Rouhani is suspected by some of seeking a role in the succession process for Iran’s next supreme leader, much as Rafsanjani helped Khamenei rise to power.
Ali Shamkhani, the former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council who oversaw the original inquiry, reiterated last year on X that the investigation was thorough and “conclusively determined that Rafsanjani’s death was natural.”
