Hardline Iranian lawmaker and cleric Hamid Rasaei was transferred to Tehran's Evin prison on Sunday to begin serving a 10-month sentence, following a complaint filed by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's judiciary said.
According to Mizan, the judiciary's news agency, the appeals court of the Special Court of Clergy convicted Rasaei of "publishing falsehoods with intent to harm others." He appeared at the court on September 27 and was sent the same day to Evin's ward for clerics. He is the first sitting lawmaker to be jailed during his term in office.
The case dates to January 2024, when Rasaei was managing director of the hardline weekly 9 Dey. The paper published an article headlined "Ghalibaf's Manipulation of Parliamentary Documents," and parliament's legal representative filed a complaint with prosecutors the following month.
The case also involved a video posted on Rasaei's Telegram channel in which he called Ghalibaf a "parliamentary dictator." The court acquitted him over that remark but convicted him over the allegation about parliamentary documents. Because the offense predated his election, he was not protected by parliamentary immunity.
According to the judiciary, Rasaei had more than 18 months to resolve the case by apologizing to Ghalibaf and refused. The court also ordered him to publish a rebuttal on the paper's front page.
Rasaei, a Tehran representative aligned with the ultraconservative Paydari faction, is among the fiercest opponents of negotiations with Washington. He has accused Ghalibaf of making excessive concessions to the Americans, and claimed that the arrangement he backed prevents Tehran from avenging the killing of Ali Khamenei and could pave the way for a "bloodless coup."
His imprisonment has intensified the rift within Iran's conservative camp, with his supporters accusing Ghalibaf of silencing critics.
