Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Hossein Mousavian

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian court gave a two-year suspended sentence Tuesday to a former senior nuclear negotiator who had been accused by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of spying for the West.

Hossein Mousavian was convicted of breaching national security, the official IRNA news agency reported. He was also barred from holding any government office for the next five years.

Mousavian was a member of the negotiating team during the tenure of former reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

The sentence - considered lenient for Iranians accused of going against the regime - came at the end of a retrial. Mousavian was acquitted in November of passing classified information to foreigners, including the British Embassy. Tehran’s chief prosecutor objected to the decision and ordered a retrial.

IRNA said Mousavian has the right to appeal.

In the initial trial, Mousavian faced three charges: passing classified information to foreigners, “spying, keeping confidential documents” and “propagating against the ruling system.”

Reports at the time said the secret service allegedly had recorded conversations between Mousavian and unnamed foreigners during the meetings.
Mousavian was found innocent of the first two charges but guilty of the lesser charge of “propaganda against the system.”

Ahmadinejad had also objected to the acquittal and threatened to disclose details of conversations the former negotiator held with foreigners he was accused of colluding with. The hard-line president called Mousavian a “spy” and made a veiled reference to Mousavian and other critics of his nuclear policies, branding them “traitors.”

IRNA said the suspended sentence came “in recognition of Mousavian’s remarkable services and background.”

Mousavian’s former boss, Hasan Rowhani, sharply criticized Ahmadinejad for prosecuting his colleague - a reflection of mounting rivalry between Ahmadinejad and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Rafsanjani is a powerful figure in Iran’s clerical leadership who has emerged as a leader of conservatives disillusioned with Ahmadinejad.

The former president’s camp, which includes Rowhani, Mousavian and Iran’s older more experienced politicians, has increasingly criticized the president for mismanaging the economy and creating enemies in Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.
Ahmadinejad removed the team when he came to power in 2005.