TEHRAN, Iran — There seems to be no end in sight to the standoff between former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the one hand and the hard-line judiciary as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Intelligence Organization on the other.
Last month was particularly challenging for Ahmadinejad. He saw his former Vice President Hamid Baghaei sent to prison March 13, only hours after a court rejected his appeal and confirmed a 62-year sentence over a series of corruption-related charges. The charges notably included the alleged embezzlement of more than 3.7 million euros ($4.6 million) paid to him by the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of the IRGC.