BEIRUT — Iran’s judiciary acquitted a moderate former government official of espionage charges Tuesday, prompting vehement criticism by supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and escalating the infighting within Iran’s leadership.
Authorities had charged Hossein Mousavian, Iran’s former nuclear negotiator and confidant of pragmatist cleric Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, this year with divulging state secrets to foreign countries. But the judiciary announced that the Revolutionary Court was clearing him of two espionage charges, while convicting him of a lesser charge of propagating against the system.
Analysts viewed the initial charges as an attempt by Ahmadinejad’s circle to tarnish Rafsanjani’s camp ahead of March parliamentary elections.
Ahmadinejad’s clique of hardliners fear that relative moderates such as Rafsanjani and Judiciary chief Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi will team with reformists such as former President Mohammed Khatami to strip them of their parliamentary majority.
Basiji militiamen loyal to Ahmadinejad gathered in front of the judiciary branch headquarters loudly denouncing the decision.
