A statement read out by Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Faezeh Hashemi had been arrested on Saturday, while the Fars news agency said she had been taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Miss Hashemi was among thousands arrested for taking part in protests that erupted after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was given a second term in a 2009 election amid claims by the opposition that the vote was rigged.

Although authorities released her, they last year put her on trial on charges of making anti-regime propaganda. She was found guilty but her sentence was not implemented until now.

Her father is an influential cleric who served as president from 1989 to 1997 and who is seen as a moderate voice isolated by hardliners in Iran’s regime.

Mr Rafsanjani, who still heads the country’s top political arbitration body, has faced demands from conservatives that he publicly condemn Iran’s opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, both of whom languish under house arrest.

Since last year, he has distanced himself from the opposition figureheads.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who beat Mr Rafsanjani to grab the presidency in 2005, is to step down next year, having served his maximum two terms.

Source: The Telegraph

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