President Hassan Rouhani has rejected a report by the Islamic Republic’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) concerning the details of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s death, his youngest son, Yasser Hashemi Rafsanjani has disclosed.
In an interview with a local news agency, Pana, Monday, January 8, Rafsanjani’s son has revealed that SNSC consequently sent a letter to President Rouhani demanding to shelve the case concerning his father's death.
President Rouhani has rejected the demand, ordering SNSC to re-investigate the whole case and as a result it should be reviewed from scratch, according to Rafsanjani Jr.
The real cause of Rafsanjani’s death, which occurred a year ago, has been the subject of intense controversies. Many, including some members of his family hint at foul play.
Meanwhile, the youngest son of the late influential ayatollah has admitted that the family has not yet seen SSCI’s report, although his other brother, Mohsen was supposed to have the permission to study the report compiled on his father’s death.
Earlier on Saturday, December 16, 2017, the outspoken younger daughter of the deceased ex-president and former Tehran MP, Faezeh Hashemi had said that the body of her father had contained radioactive elements “10 times more than the allowed level”.
In her interview with E’temed News Website, Faezeh Hashemi also added that her family had been informed about the issue of radioactivity during a meeting with several members of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic. She did not mention when the meeting was held and who were the officials who attended it.
Hashemi's daughter also disclosed in her interview that her sister, Fatemeh and her mother were tested for radiation. Her mother had three times the normal level and her sister had twice. She did not say when the tests took place, but most probably, it was after they learned about high levels of radiation in her father's body.
The members of national security council told the family that they did not know about the source of the radiation, however they had concluded that it was not the reason for the death of Ex-President Rafsanjani and therefore, the case had been closed, Faezeh Hashemi told E’temad.
More than a month later, the SNSC’s authorities have yet to react to Ms. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s remarks.
There have been many contradictory reports concerning the mysterious death of the ex-president believed to be the second strongest man in post Islamic Revolution in Iran, after ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the founder of the Islamic Republic.
An outspoken dissident and son of an influential ayatollah, Mehdi Khazali, claimed at the time that Hashemi Rafsanjani had been killed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). An accusation that IRGC has so far kept mum about it.
The body of the 82-year old ayatollah was found on Sunday, January 8, 2017, in a pool in his house that he frequently used. The cause of the death was officially declared as “heart failure”, a term used in Iran to describe a death caused by “unknown” factors.
Rafsanjani’s children said that at the time their father was very healthy and did not have any history of heart problems.
Immediately after the death of the former president, Iran’s minister of health criticized the medical team for “shortcomings” in addressing the heart attack, and rumors circulated that Rafsanjani was in fact drowned in a pool. He died while taking his routine swimming exercise.
Ayatollah Hashemi who was widely believed to be the mastermind behind ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rise to power as the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, separated his way from the leader’s over controversial reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Though, Khamenei never openly attacked his old friend but implicitly criticized him on many occasions.
Rafsanjani's relations with Khamenei gradually worsened and his son, Mehdi and daughter Faezeh Hashemi were both arrested on various charges and placed behind bars.
Currently, Mehdi is serving his term, while Faezeh is facing new charges.
After separating ways with his friend of more than half a century, ayatollah Khamenei has tacitly accused him and his proteges, the current president, Hassan Rouhani and the so-called reformist former president Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) of attempting to reach a rapprochement with the U.S.