Iran ex-president's son begins 10-year jail term

Tehran

The son of Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani began a 10-year prison term for financial and security crimes on Sunday, insisting his conviction was politically motivated.

Mehdi Hashemi was in March handed prison sentences totalling 25 years after being convicted on three charges in separate cases involving national security, fraud and embezzlement.

The 45-year-old was also ordered to pay undisclosed fines and financial penalties, and was barred from holding public office. He lost an appeal.The trial was held behind closed doors and details of the evidence and specific crimes has not been released.

He was sentenced to two terms of 10 years in prison and one of five years, and in line with Iranian law will serve the longest of the three sentences.Iranian media said he had arrived at Evin Prison in Tehran where he read a statement to reporters demanding that recordings of his trial be released.

Hashemi said he saw "political purposes as the main element" of the case against him.He said his conviction was "neither fair nor legal" but he hoped "to protect and defend the integrity of my honourable and oppressed father".

"I demand once again that state television broadcast my court hearings fully," he said. "I firmly believe that this measure will prevent abuses by radicals from harming one of the important pillars of the Islamic republic," he added, in an apparent reference to the judiciary.