Ahmadinejad aide denies insulting Khamenei

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, has been found guilty by a Tehran court of insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but yesterday fought back against the charge.
“My adherence to the sage supreme leader is more apparent than the sun, and is backed by my record,” Javanfekr wrote on his personal website, Javanfekr.ir.
He said he would appeal the verdict, which was delivered on Sunday by a Revolutionary Court.
The court sentenced Javanfekr to a year in prison and a five-year ban on media and political activities for references he made to Khamenei on his website in April 2011.
“I expect the judges to be fair and overturn the sentence in the appeals process,” he wrote.
The conviction marks another legal twist for Javanfekr, who also runs Iran’s official IRNA news agency and a state press group that prints several newspapers and magazines.
It was a setback generally for Ahmadinejad and his entourage, whose long running battle against hardline conservative judges and lawmakers is intensifying ahead of March legislative elections.
Javanfekr narrowly avoided arrest in November over a separate legal case, in which he was accused of undermining Islamic values by permitting a state magazine to run articles commenting critically on the headscarf and dress Iranian women are obliged to wear.