Khamenei backed 2009 vote-rigging and crackdown, reformist cleric says

The suspect, identified as Mohammad Adil Hussaini, had travelled to several countries, including Pakistan, and was allegedly involved in sharing sensitive material abroad, India Today reported, citing police sources.

During questioning, Hussaini allegedly said he obtained nuclear-related designs from a Russian scientist and passed them to a contact in Iran, the report said.

Police said Hussaini earned large sums from the exchange, investing part of the money in property in Dubai. Officials are investigating whether any classified information was shared, saying the matter involves foreign contacts and remains under inquiry.

Delhi Police said Hussaini, also known by several aliases, was found with one original and two forged Indian passports. He is suspected of using fake documents to obtain multiple identity cards linked to sensitive installations.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah said the racket had been operating for years and was run from the eastern city of Jamshedpur, where forged passports were produced. “Several others are under the scanner,” Kushwah said on Tuesday.

Police said Hussaini’s brother, Akhtar Hussaini, had been arrested in Mumbai for helping secure fake IDs and travelling to Persian Gulf countries to expand the network. A cafe owner linked to the operation has also been detained.

Hussaini has been remanded in seven days of police custody for questioning, Delhi Police said.

The veteran theocrat had referenced the “No Kings” protests across the United States on Oct. 18 in a recent speech, calling on US President Donald Trump to listen to demonstrators and refrain from interfering in other countries.

“If you’re that capable, calm them down, send them back to their residences, and don’t interfere in the affairs of other countries,” Khamenei had said.

Ghadyani, 80, who is serving a prison sentence for “propaganda against the regime,” including a 2019 sentence for insulting Khamenei, said the 86-year-old ruler was in no place to lecture Trump.

“Sooner or later, the Iranian people will rise and dismantle the oppressive, authoritarian and anti-national system of Ali Khamenei,” Ghadyani wrote.

“The most peaceful path forward is for him to relinquish his grip on power, seek forgiveness from the Iranian people, and allow a referendum to establish a government of the people’s choosing.”

Insulting Khamenei, considered by Iran's theocratic establishment to be a holy figure, is a crime and Ghadyani has few peers among prominent critics in leveling direct attacks on him.

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A former revolutionary turned outspoken dissident, he has faced multiple convictions for his political writings and public statements.

Ghadyani said Khamenei reveals his own hypocrisy and authoritarianism by urging the US president, in his interpretation, to suppress dissent as he does in Iran.

“This criminal autocrat unwittingly exposes his own nature by urging the US president to suppress dissent as he and his anti-people allies do in Iran,” he wrote.

Ghadyani challenged Khamenei’s concept of national security, arguing that it focuses solely on preserving power rather than protecting the Iranian people.

“For tyrants like him, national security and the safety of the people are meaningless. True security lies in the absence of authoritarian rule,” he wrote.

‘Let the public vote’

Authorities in Iran, where Khamenei is that ultimate decision maker, have suppressed with deadly force recurring rounds of anti-government protests in recent decades but have long bashed the rights records of Israel and the United States.

A long-time critic of Khamenei, Ghadyani dared the Iranian leader to test his popularity through a public vote.

“Khamenei dares not admit that over 95 percent of Iranians oppose him and the Islamic Republic. If he denies this, let him, just once, submit himself to a public vote and show the world how deeply the Iranian people reject him,” Ghadyani said.

His latest imprisonment follows a series of letters and speeches in which he has openly called for Khamenei’s resignation and the dismantling of Iran’s ruling system.

Iran continues to grapple with the aftermath of a punishing 12-day war in June against Israel and the United States and the the reimposition last month of UN sanctions triggered by Britain, France and the United Kingdom.

Under a new law Iranians will be able to enter their details on a Foreign Ministry’s portal called Porseman to check whether they are “problem-free” to travel to Iran, top envoy Abbas Araghchi said according to state media.

Those cleared receive a green tick indicating they have no outstanding legal or security issues. Araghchi went further, saying that if a person with a green tick is arrested, “those who arrested them will be prosecuted.”

He described the plan as part of an effort to “decriminalize the mindset” of Iranians abroad and encourage smoother travel home.

The statement immediately drew ridicule online.

Iranian journalist Hossein Bastani wrote on X that the idea was absurd, asking where the Foreign Ministry could “take action” against more powerful armed organs of state power like the Intelligence Ministry or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Competing state bodies staffed variously by clerics, security men, spies and conservative bureaucrats vie hotly for influence in the Islamic theocracy.

US diplomats have frequently criticized the foreign ministry as beholden to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the IRGC.

Authorities are not the authorities

Analysts interviewed by Iran International said the Porseman portal may be subject to the vagaries of Iran's divided system.

Patrick Clawson, director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the initiative ignores the fundamental problem: that “the authorities are not the authorities.”

Different agencies in Iran, he said, often act without coordination or oversight, meaning a traveler could be cleared by one branch of government and still detained by another.

That lack of hierarchy, Clawson added, has long frustrated both diplomats and negotiators dealing with Tehran.

“You could have eight agencies saying you’re fine,” he said, “and the ninth one arrests you.” Clawson dismissed Araghchi’s claim of prosecuting the Revolutionary Guard as political theater, calling it another example of how little power the foreign minister actually holds in Iran’s decision-making structure.

'No green tick will protect you'

Alex Vatanka, head of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, said the Islamic Republic has spent years trying to convince Iranians abroad to visit and invest, but trust is almost nonexistent. The foreign ministry can make assurances, he said, but “if another branch of the system decides you’re a target, no green tick will protect you.”

That fear is not unfounded. Lebanese academic Nizar Zakka and Australian researcher Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who both described their ordeals in interviews with Iran International's podcast Eye for Iran— were invited to Iran by senior officials for conferences and academic exchanges, only to be later arrested and imprisoned on spurious charges.

Their cases remain emblematic of how one arm of the state can extend invitations while another turns those same visitors into hostages.

Vatanka believes the initiative stems from desperation to attract tourism and foreign currency as Iran’s economy falters.

“They look at Turkey, the UAE, even Saudi Arabia making billions from tourism, while Iran—with all its history and culture—gets almost nothing,” he said.

“But Iran treats people as currency. Hostage-taking has been part of its political toolbox since 1979, and that’s not something a website can fix.”

Former US diplomat Alan Eyre said the timing of the Porseman rollout also reflects President Masoud Pezeshkian’s attempt to project normalcy after a bruising year marked by snapback sanctions, a 12-day war, and deepening isolation.

“They’re trying to show Iran is open for tourism and investment,” Eyre told Iran International, “but the executive branch is weak and can’t control the security forces that actually run things.”

Eyre said the effort fits a familiar pattern: after international crises, the clerical establishment launches cosmetic outreach to soften its image abroad. But, he added, “beneath that surface message of safety, you still have a system that arrests its own citizens and uses them as bargaining chips.”

The US State Department has long advised US citizens not to travel to Iran, citing risks of arbitrary arrest, detention, and hostage-taking, and the current Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory remains in place.

For now, Porseman offers reassurance only on paper. In practice, the same system that issues a green tick cannot resolve the uncertainty that defines travel to Iran — a country where returning home still carries unpredictable risk.

The judiciary said the case was launched hours after the interview appeared online and that Hashemi has been summoned to court to explain her remarks.

In the interview, Hashemi alleged that her father, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic and a central figure in its early leadership, was deliberately killed because he had become a “thorn in the eye” of Iran’s rulers. She said he was removed for siding with the people and speaking out against the country’s direction.

Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, died in January 2017 while swimming at a government facility in Tehran. Authorities said at the time that he had suffered a heart attack, but members of his family have repeatedly voiced doubts about that explanation. They have cited missing CCTV footage, the disappearance of his diaries, and the lack of a post-mortem examination as reasons for their concern.

Rafsanjani was a powerful figure in Iran’s post-revolution politics and a key backer of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rise to power in 1989. But the two men later fell out, particularly after the disputed 2009 election, when Rafsanjani supported opposition candidates and called for political openness. His children have said that pressures on him increased in his final years.

Former President Hassan Rouhani is being targeted by hardline lawmakers, Revolutionary Guards commanders, and state-aligned media outlets. Even figures close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appear to have joined the quiet campaign to sideline him.

Although social media sentiment leans in Rouhani’s favor, visible public support is absent. The only voices defending him belong to former aides, not the broader population.

Much of the hostility stems from Rouhani’s recent remarks implicitly criticizing Tehran’s foreign policy—particularly the so-called “Look East” doctrine—and his renewed public presence since the 12-day war, which has coincided with Khamenei’s retreat from the spotlight.

Many in Tehran believe Rouhani is positioning himself for a potential role in the power vacuum that could follow the soon-to-be 87-year-old leader.

History with the Guards

In the past week, former IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari, ex-security chief Ali Shamkhani, and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf—himself a former Guards general—have all publicly attacked Rouhani.

His uneasy relationship with the Revolutionary Guards dates back to his presidency.

In December 2014, he described the IRGC as “a government with guns, media outlets, prisons, its own intelligence agency, and substantial economic resources,” warning that such concentrated power could breed corruption.

The backlash was swift. Rouhani’s brother was accused of financial misconduct, tried, and imprisoned—though often seen outside prison—damaging the president’s credibility.

Old rivalries reignited

Rouhani defeated conservative and hardline candidates in both the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections with sharp rhetoric, and his opponents never forgave him.

Ghalibaf was among the contenders on both occasions.

First, he was humiliated during televised debates when Rouhani accused him of taking campaign funds from drug traffickers and backing the violent suppression of student protests in 1999. Then, in 2017, Ghalibaf was pressured by hardliners to withdraw from the race to boost Ebrahim Raisi’s chances—a strategy that failed.

That old hostility is now resurfacing in parliament, where Ghalibaf has taken the lead in attacks on Rouhani. He has been more measured in tone, but ultraconservatives appear to have taken the cue.

On October 26, hardline MPs Amir Hossein Sabeti and Hamid Rasai called for Rouhani’s trial and imprisonment.

While such demands aren’t new, Sabeti went further, claiming Rouhani is positioning himself for a “higher role”—a thinly veiled reference to his rumored ambition to become Iran’s next Supreme Leader.

A potential contender?

Rouhani remains a singular figure among Iran’s clerics: he holds genuine academic credentials, speaks with eloquence, and has a revolutionary pedigree.

Few clerics can match his combination of seniority and stature.

It’s not hard to see why Khamenei and his son Mojtaba—whose name is heard more than any other in succession chatter—would like Rouhani weakened.

There’s no evidence that the leader’s office is involved in what appears to be a concerted attack on Rouhani, but Khamenei once publicly rebuked him after the former president called for a referendum to restore presidential powers.

Fall from grace

Rouhani’s main liability is his loss of public trust.

He misled the nation about the IRGC’s missile strike on a civilian airliner in 2020 and authorized the violent suppression of peaceful protests in 2019.

Stylistically, he models himself after Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, the former chief justice killed in a 1981 bombing.

Always impeccably dressed, with a neatly groomed salt-and-pepper beard, he projects discipline and control—and is perhaps the only senior figure in the moderate camp who can claim a serious security record.

As pressure mounts, many in Tehran wonder whether this campaign against Rouhani will end well—for him or for the system.

His situation recalls the parable of a man falling from a high-rise building. When asked how things were going halfway down, he replied, “So far, so good.”