🔸The Spokesman of the Judiciary announced on 17 Mordad that Mohammad-Baqer Khazaei, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah Iran, has been summoned to the Special Clergy Court in connection with his recent remarks and is under criminal investigation.

🔸Asghar Jahangir said that, given Mohammad-Baqer Khazaei’s status as a cleric, the handling of his charges falls within the jurisdiction of the Special Clergy Court, and added that he “may have multiple security-related charges” and that if he does not appear in court, an arrest warrant will be issued.

🔸Mohammad-Baqer Khazaei had recently claimed that Masoud Pezeshkian had submitted his resignation several times and that Mojtaba Khamenei had also warned him about making another resignation; claims that were denied by the office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and by government officials.

🔸Khazaei’s latest remarks about how to deal with improper veiling have also sparked reactions. Ahmad Zeidabadi, a political activist, described his statements as “an order to kill and carry out massacres of citizens and to occupy government offices,” and had called for judicial action against him.

🔸Mohammad-Baqer Khazaei is the son of Ayatollah Mohsen Khazaei and a relative by marriage of the Khamenei family, and in Iran’s political landscape he has been present as a person with hardline and distinctive approaches compared to the main currents of power.