UN-Truth

Hossein Mousavian has been acquitted today of charges of spying for Britain and other nuclear powers. He was arrested in May, then freed on bail after several weeks’ detention, then rearrested about ten days ago. [See UN-Truth's last previous post on this intriguing story here. ]

The former nuclear negotiator was convicted, however, of working against the system, as AP reported from Tehran: “A former Iranian nuclear negotiator was acquitted Tuesday of spying charges but convicted of acting against the Islamic government in a case that has become a centerpiece in the feud between hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his top political rival. The verdict for Hossein Mousavian appeared to be a setback for Ahmadinejad, who had branded the diplomat a ‘spy’ and made a veiled reference to him and other critics of his nuclear policies as ‘traitors’. Mousavian is a close ally of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful figure in Iran’s clerical leadership who is seen as a pragmatist. Allies of Rafsanjani have been increasingly public in their criticism of Ahmadinejad, accusing him of mismanaging the nuclear standoff with the West and of lashing out against his rivals. The case against Mousavian from the start was seen as a part of the rivalry. Ahmadinejad implicitly accused Rafsanjani’s camp of trying to influence the judiciary to acquit the negotiator. He vowed to stop them and expose his opponents as traitors, suggesting Mousavian had urged the West to toughen their stance on Iran in the nuclear dispute. After the announcement of the verdict, several dozen hard-line students protested outside the judiciary building and scuffled with police. The students chanted slogans against Mousavian, shouting ‘death to compromisers’ and ‘the nuclear spy must be executed’.  There were no reports of injuries or arrests. Mousavian was accused by the Intelligence Ministry of passing classified information to foreigners, including the British Embassy. He was charged with spying, keeping confidential documents and ‘propagating against the ruling system’, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi. He was found not guilty of the first two charges but guilty of the third, Jamshidi said, adding that the court suspended a sentence against him. A sentence, however, cannot be ruled out if the prosecution objects to the court decision, Jamshidi said … ‘In Iran, hardly anybody will believe that Mousavian was a spy’, said political analyst Fayaz Zahed. ‘The majority of the people agree that the accusations against him were part of a political game by Ahmadinejad’s group. Mousavian fell victim to rivalries between Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad’. Still, Zahed predicted Ahmadinejad would continue to raise allegations such as the ones against Mousavian ‘to lessen pressures on his government because of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran and (his) failing to fix Iran’s economy’ … Former top negotiator Hasan Rowhani sharply criticized Ahmadinejad last week for prosecuting Mousavian, his former deputy, and accused the president of trying to eliminate rivals. His comments came on top of an unusually sharp rebuke he made in October saying Ahmadinejad’s policies are turning more countries against Iran and failing to fix the struggling economy. Rowhani is a member of the Supreme National Security Council and sits on the Experts Assembly and the Expediency Council, another influential clerical body”. The AP report on the Mousavian verdict is here.

The Guardian newspaper reported that “An Iranian court today acquitted a former nuclear negotiator of spying for the British government but convicted him of acting against the Islamic authorities. The Iranian government charged Hossein Mousavian earlier this month with passing classified information to foreigners, including the British embassy, and the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called him a ‘spy’ and ‘traitor’ … Mousavian, a moderate who favours compromise over Iran’s dispute with the west, became the focus of a domestic power struggle between Ahmadinejad and the previous president, Hashemi Rafsanjani. The attacks on Mousavian, a former ambassador to Germany, appeared to be part of a broader offensive against a coalition of pragmatic conservatives and reformists allied to Rafsanjani, who has emerged as a rallying figure for opponents of the hardline president. Rafsanjani, chairman of the experts’ assembly, an important clerical body, has warned that Ahmadinejad’s confrontational rhetoric risks pushing Iran into a military confrontation with the US”. The Guardian’s report on the Mousavian verdict is here.

Filed under: Human Rights, International Atomic Energy Agency - IAEA, Iran, UN Security Council