Hashemi Rafsanjani criticizes Iranian leader for encouraging Ahmadinejad
In a rare occurrence, the powerful Iranian statesman, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who leads Iran's Expediency Council, has publicly criticized on his website what he calls "Esteemed leader's meaningful silence" which resulted in "a [presidential] candidate to go on public TV and issue falsified and slanderous statements before 50 million viewers." This refers to Ahmadinejad's public accusation of Rafsanjani family of corruption during last year's Presidential debates on TV.
Rafsanjani also refers to a history of irregularities and fraud allegations in Iranian elections including a 1999 parliamentary election in Tehran, in which partial re-count of votes bumped Rafsanjani's rank from 30th to 19th, but the recount was ordered to stop by Iranian leader. Also, in his letter, Rafsanjani satirically refers to a precise prophetic forecast by a hardliner pro-Ahmadinejad member of Parliament about last year's contested election, who had said "Wait and you will see Ahmadinejad's 24 million vote victory."
Recently, after the re-publication on Rafsanjani's website, of a sharply critical letter to Khamenei (Iranian leader), offices of Faeze Hashemi, Rafsanjani's reformist and outspoken daughter, were raided and ransacked by an unidentified group of vigilantes, thought to be controlled by the Iranian leader. Also, the judiciary has called for indictment of Mehdi Hashemi, Rafsanjani's son, who is outside the country and said to have close links to the private Islamic Open University.