By Kayhan Life Staff
The Article 90 Committee of the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) has filed three complaints with the Judiciary against the former President Hassan Rouhani, accusing him of “dereliction of duty,” Nasrollah Pejmanfar, deputy chairperson of the Article 90 Committee, said on Aug. 31.
Article 90 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic states: “Whoever has a complaint concerning the work of the Assembly or the executive power or the judicial power can forward his complaint in writing to the Assembly. The Assembly must investigate his complaint and give a satisfactory reply. If the complaint relates to the executive or the Judiciary, the Assembly must demand proper investigation and an adequate explanation and announce the results within a reasonable time. Where the subject of the complaint is of public interest, the reply must be made public.”
“The Article 90 Committee has compiled several files in this case,” Mr. Pejmanfar said. “It has submitted some of them to the Judiciary and is working on others.”
Pejmanfar explained that the committee had submitted two complaints against members of the previous government, “including President Rouhani,” to the Judiciary. They pertained to the “stock market” crisis and to “foreign exchange manipulation.”
There has been little news of Rouhani since the presidential elections in June. Some have suggested that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei might appoint Rouhani to the Expediency Council, as he did with the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in office from 2005 to 2013. There has been no official announcement regarding this matter.
According to the Tehran-based Etemad online newspaper, Rouhani is a candidate to act as chair of the Expediency Council. However, the last time Rouhani attended a formal council session was shortly before the death of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in January 2017.
Pejmanfar added that the committee was “also preparing a case on dereliction of duty by former government officials regarding housing. We will submit the file to the Judiciary, following an expert review of the case.”
He said the committee had investigated the former government’s policy on housing and filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office against Rouhani for alleged dereliction of duty.
“The public will most likely welcome efforts to hold officials suspected of dereliction of duty accountable, so it is important for the Judiciary to get involved in the case,” Pejmanfar added.
According to the semi-official Fars news agency, 500,000 people from different segments of Iranian society, including several clerics and university students, have signed and filed a complaint with the Article 90 Committee of the Majlis against Rouhani.
The following is the text of the signed petition titled “The Complaint by the Great Iranian Nation Against Hassan Rouhani”:
“Honorable chairperson and members of the Article 90 Committee of the Majlis,
With greetings and utmost respect,
We, the signatories, are submitting a complaint against Mr. Hassan Rouhani, the head of the 11th and 12th governments, and ask the Revolutionary Majlis to pursue the matter until the Judiciary has issued a decisive ruling in the case.
Below is the summary of the charges:
1-Raising the foreign exchange rate, devaluing the national currency, and causing the loss of people’s capital.
2-Failing to strengthen domestic manufacturing, destroying production, eliminating jobs by promoting imports and contrabands.
3-Enabling the enemies’ spies by appointing dual nationals to crucial government posts, allowing many coronavirus deaths by blindly following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines, and ignoring Iranian homeopathic medicines.
4-Cooperating with those who have imposed sanctions on the nation by implementing the unlawful Palermo [Convention] and CFT [Countering the Financing of Terrorism], disclosing ways to bypass sanctions, and refusing offers from our allies to replace the dollar with another currency.
5-Misleading the public over sanctions relief and signing the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal] damaging the country’s nuclear program, failing to fulfill [election] campaign’s economic promises.
6-Erosion of family culture, gambling, murder, robbery, sexual perversion, mental illness, corruption, and other calamities, all caused by the internet, which is controlled by foreign entities. Failure to establish a national information network or hold a regular meeting of the Cyberspace Supreme Council — in direct violation of the law and despite repeated instructions by the esteemed Supreme Leader.
7-Lack of government support for farmers and the ever-increasing cost of livestock and agricultural products have decimated the agriculture industry and dairy farming.
8-Appointing Bijan [Namdar] Zanganeh as the oil minister and giving unequivocal support to his policies, which have cost the country billions [of dollars].
9-Auctioning the country’s foreign currency and gold reserves worth billions [of dollars].
10-Failure to facilitate the construction of new homes, which have increased rents and house prices, and refusal to enforce the law that requires homeowners to pay tax on vacant properties.
11-Betraying public trust by encouraging investment in the stock market, and then intentionally lowering the value of stocks, resulted in many people losing money.
12-To sell and transfer the control of large companies and public assets to political and factional insiders at prices well below their market values under the so-called privatization scheme.
13-Telegraphing the country’s weaknesses to the enemy repeatedly and compromising the national pride through undignified and useless negotiations with the enemy.
14-Failing to increase cash subsidies generated from raising energy prices which legally should go into people’s accounts.
15-Creating a gasoline crisis in the country has inflicted $4.7 billion in financial damages and resulted in the death of 200 fellow Iranians.
16-Reluctance to exact a harsh revenge on the enemy and compromise the nation’s safety and military security by accommodating the aggressors.
17-Succumbing to pressure to allow international spies to interrogate Iranian scientists to identify and assassinate them.
18-Transferring part of the oil revenue into a special bank account set up for the president instead of depositing it into the national treasury.
