As some members of the Principlists party (Osulgarayan) in the Iranian parliament, including Ahmad Tavakoli, Elias Naderan, and Ali Reza Zakani continue to push for the prosecution of Ahmadinejad’s first deputy Mohammad Reza Rahimi, several news sites affiliated with the same party which staunchly supports Ahmadinejad have started to leak private information against these MPs accusing them of harboring vicious agendas. According to these conservative news sites, Naderan not only owns up to eight residential complexes some of which are registered under his relatives’ names but also received a real estate loan from the Majlis in the amount of one hundred million Tomans. Based on similar accusations, there is no documented record proving that Naderan actually served during the 8-year Iran-Iraq war and in fact “his claim for being a disabled veteran is related to an accident he had before the 1979 revolution, which has not been corroborated by the Foundation for Veterans and Disabled Affairs (Bonyad Janbazan va Omoor Isargaran)”.
During past few days, some of the same websites have revealed information about Zakani’s college drop-out status as well as some irregularities in Tavakoli’s electoral office and campaign. Previously, these sites had raised questions about Jafar Shajooni, an MP who had severely criticized Esfandiar Rahim Mashaee. Meanwhile some former political columnists of Kayhan newspaper accused Hossein Shariatmadari, its managing editor, of striving to eliminate Ahmadinejad’s close allies from the political scene. In their accusations they described Kayhan as marred by a “legitimacy crisis” and denounced Shariatmadari for playing “political games”.
The three MPs targeted by conservative news sites had accused Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Ahmadinejad’s first deputy, of financial corruption. In this regard Elias Naderan had said, “Mr. Rahimi is the ring leader of the Fatemi street gang who has led the collection and distribution of revenue attained from illegal sources, all of whom except the president’s first deputy have already been placed under arrest.” In his expose, he had described the Fatemi Street gang in these words: “The financial-corruption gang of Fatemi Street in Tehran consisted of Jaber Abdali, Elyas Mahmoudi, Masoudi, and some others who have all been arrested subsequently. It is not true to say that Rahimi did not play a role in distributing the money for the checks that were signed by Abdali. While the bank accounts and the checks belonged to Abdali, the handwriting on the checks belong to someone else and it is not hard to identify that person. But more important than the distribution of revenue is its corrupt source and in this regard Rahimi should be held responsible to the people as well as to the judicial system.”
After Rahimi’s appointment as the president’s first deputy Jahan News website, affiliated with Ali Zakani, had written, “Regarding the insurance fraud case committed by a criminal gang in the city of Karaj there were signs pointing the figure to a controversial official who is accused of several financial and corruption wrongdoings and who currently holds a senior position in the government.”