[JURIST] An Iranian court on Sunday sentenced a son of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [BBC backgrounder, JURIST news archive] to 15 years in prison on charges of embezzlement and bribery. Rafsanjani’s son, referred to only as “MH” in court documents, is assumed by those in the Iranian government to be Mehdi Hashemi. Hashemi is a businessman and politician who was known to support those challenging former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile] in 2009. Hashemi was been accused of profiting from during his father’s years as president and has made enemies with many Iranian hard-liners for his advocacy of change to the government. MH has 20 days to appeal his sentence.

MH is not the only one of Rafsanjani’s children to face legal troubles in recent years. Rafsanjani’s daughter, Faezeh Hashemi [The Iranian profile], was sentenced [JURIST report] in January 2012 to six months in prison after being convicted of spreading propaganda against the country’s government. This conviction is believed to have been prompted by an interview [text] she gave to the opposition website Roozonline, in which she criticized supporters of the Iranian regime. During the disputed 2009 elections, Faezah Hashemi supported the candidate opposing then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and participated in protests contesting the election results.