Imprisonment of hardline Iranian MP over Ghalibaf feud ignites fierce conservative backlash

Mohammad Manan Raeisi said that he contacted Ghalibaf’s office to recommend that they cancel the judgment, insisting that the imprisonment would lead to officials losing respect for the speaker.

Iranian hardliners raged against Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei in response to hardline lawmaker Hamid Rasaei receiving a 10-month sentence for “publishing falsehoods with intent to harm others,” according to reports from Iranian state media, Iranian judicial media, and public statements from parliamentary officials.

Rasaei, who was sent to the notorious Evin Prison on Sunday, was convicted after Ghalibaf filed a complaint over a 2024 article he published before becoming a member of Parliament. Then-editor-in-chief of 9 Dey, Rasaei published an article alleging that Ghalibaf had manipulated parliamentary documents and posted content on his own social media describing the speaker as a “parliamentary dictator.”

The lawmaker also ruffled feathers in May after making comments that some viewed as a swipe at Mojtaba Khamenei. A Telegram post about the drowning of the unrighteous son of the biblical figure Noah prompted several officials to call for regime members to focus on publishing messages that project an image of social cohesion.

Despite Rasaei’s former newspaper no longer running, the court ordered him to publish a retraction and demanded he apologize to the speaker, a demand he refused, according to Fars News Agency. He insisted that the court’s ruling was “non-legal and political” and his sentencing was excessive.

Ghalibf seen as negotiating with killers of their leader

Ghalibaf, interpreted by some as being more in favor of negotiations with Washington, drew criticism for the criminal complaint. Parliamentarian and cleric Seyyed Mahmoud Naboyan published on X/Twitter after the ruling, “Negotiating and reaching an understanding with the killer of the martyr leader does not hold enough value for it to have been decided to confront the critics with memoranda of understanding under various pretexts.”

Iranian parliamentarian Mohammad-Manan Raeisi also complained on X, writing, “Despite some differences of opinion with Mr. #Resaei, my honor and integrity do not allow me to remain silent regarding his imprisonment due to a complaint from the esteemed Speaker of Parliament himself!”

Mohammad Manan Raeisi said that he contacted Ghalibaf’s office to recommend that they cancel the judgment, insisting that the imprisonment would lead to officials losing respect for the speaker.

“With this kind of narrow-mindedness, we are witnessing the unveiling of a new curtain of reconciliation that apparently includes everyone under the sun except for some revolutionary representatives of the parliament!”