Iran acquits ex-official of espionage

Iran’s judiciary acquitted a moderate former government official of espionage charges Tuesday, prompting vehement criticism by supporters of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and escalating the infighting within Iran’s leadership.

Authorities had charged Hossein Mousavian, Iran’s former nuclear negotiator and a confidant of pragmatist cleric Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, with divulging state secrets to other countries this year. But the judiciary announced that the Revolutionary Court was clearing him of a pair of espionage charges, while convicting him of a far lesser charge of propagating ideas against the system, a security charge often handed to journalists.

Many analysts in Iran viewed the initial charges as an attempt by Ahmadinejad’s circle to tarnish the camp of his rival, Rafsanjani, ahead of key March 2008 parliamentary elections.

Ahmadinejad’s circle of hard-liners fears that relative moderates such as Rafsanjani and judiciary chief Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi will team up with reformists such as former President Mohammad Khatami to strip them of their parliamentary majority.

Mousavian’s acquittal angered hard-liners. Members of the Basiji militia loyal to Ahmadinejad gathered in front of the judiciary branch headquarters, loudly denouncing the decision and accusing Rafsanjani of corruption.

“The spy should be executed!” the demonstrators chanted.

“Mousavian has been charged with harming national security through leaking information to the aliens, including the British Embassy in Tehran,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, Iran’s intelligence and security minister, told the semiofficial Fars News Agency. “From the viewpoint of the Intelligence Ministry, these charges have been proved.”

The acquittal isn’t the first time Ahmadinejad’s take-no-prisoners style has come under fire within Iran’s conservative leadership.

Last week, an editorial in the hard-line Jomhouri Eslami newspaper blasted Ahmadinejad’s conduct in the Mousavian case.

“The general climate of the country has been overwhelmed by propaganda against individuals,” the paper said. “A lawful country does not deserve an individual in any position to become plaintiff, judge and executor.”

Ahmadinejad’s loyalists Tuesday demanded that Mousavian be tried in open court instead of the special courts used to try political dissidents and alleged spies. Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham accused the judiciary of bowing to external pressure.

“We feel pity for those who want to put economic, social and political pressure on the judge of the case,” he said.

Human rights advocates inside and outside the country have accused Iranian authorities of using the judiciary as a political tool to silence critics and rivals.

But signs have emerged that judiciary chief Shahroudi, once closely identified with the hard-line camp, has tempered his views.

On Tuesday, the judiciary announced that it would reexamine the acquittal of those accused of killing Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian Canadian journalist who died in custody at Tehran’s Evin prison.

Iran’s handling of the case outraged human rights advocates and continues to strain relations between Ottawa and Tehran.

daragahi@latimes.com

Special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.