http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article33439.ece

Rafsanjani grandson arrested in Iran over protests
 

By REUTERS 

Published: Mar 22, 2010 23:46 Updated: Mar 23, 2010 03:04 

TEHRAN: A grandson of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has 
been arrested for taking part in post-election protests last year, a news 
agency said on Monday.

Hassan Lahouti was detained by security police on Sunday at Tehran airport 
after arriving on a flight from abroad, the Fars news agency said.

His grandfather, who heads the powerful Assembly of Experts, is still a 
powerful player in the ruling establishment.

A source close to the family told Fars that Lahouti, believed to be in his 20s, 
left the country last year days after the presidential vote in which President 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected.

The election plunged the Islamic republic into its most serious internal crisis 
since the 1979 revolution, when opposition supporters took to the streets in 
protest against the result.

Lahouti's mother, Faezeh Hashemi, was among several of Rafsanjani's relatives 
held briefly for joining rallies in June, when the unrest first erupted.

Rafsanjani has been criticized by Ahmadinejad supporters for what they said was 
his failure to give full backing to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 
the crackdown on the protest movement.

Rafsanjani expressed support for Khamenei, a Shiite Muslim jurist who holds 
ultimate authority in Iran, at a meeting of the Assembly of Experts in February.


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