ex-Iran President’s son appeals 15-year sentence

This photo taken on July 29, 2002, shows Mahdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, son of influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, prior to a meeting in Tehran, Iran. Mahdi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison over security and corruption charges, authorities said Sunday, March 15, 2015. (AP Photo)

A lawyer for the son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says his client has appealed a court verdict that sentenced him to 15 years in prison over security and corruption charges.

Mahmoud Alizadeh is quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying Mahdi Hashemi Rafsanjani had initially refused to appeal the sentence out of protest, but changed his mind at the last minute at the urging of his mother.

Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which mainly hears security-related cases, last month approved the 15-year sentence and an unspecified cash fine. It also banned the younger Rafsanjani from public office.

The younger Rafsanjani was briefly imprisoned before standing trial on charges of fomenting unrest in the aftermath of Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election, won by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.