Rafsanjani daughter sentenced in Iran

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TEHRAN, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- An Iranian court said the daughter of a former Iranian president was sentenced to jail and barred from political life for making claims against the state.

Faezeh Hashemi, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter, was sentenced by an Iranian court for propaganda against the state. Arrested last year, she was sentenced to six months in jail and barred from politics for five years, the BBC reports.

Hashemi was arrested previously following the unrest that greeted contested presidential elections in Iran in June 2009.

Rafsanjani, an influential cleric in the Iranian government, came under fire from the conservative leadership for backing opposition leader and former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi during the June contest.

Officials in Tehran blamed Rafsanjani for fanning the "fires of dissent" for his support of the opposition movement in Iran.

Hashemi's son, Hassan Lahouti, was sentenced to prison after he returned to Iran following election riots, dubbed the country's Green Revolution.

Hashemi, in an interview with news magazine Foreign Policy last year, lashed out at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for mishandling national affairs.

The semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported last week that Rasfanjani wants reformist lawmakers to boycott March parliamentary elections.