Hassan Rouhani

After Flight PS752 was destroyed by two IRGC missiles on 8 January 2020, Iran initially denied responsibility before admitting it three days later. In 2025, Ali Shamkhani claimed that he had informed Rouhani on the first day; Rouhani's former chief of staff, by contrast, maintained that the President had learned the cause only two days later.

State of the evidence

Disputed

Attribution

Political responsibility

The Guardian Council prevented Hassan Rouhani, a former president and long-standing member of the Assembly of Experts, from standing for re-election to that body in 2024. Rouhani denounced a political decision restricting voters' choices.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Hossein Fereydoun, Hassan Rouhani's brother, close adviser and participant in nuclear negotiations, was prosecuted and subsequently definitively sentenced to five years' imprisonment, a fine and restitution in a corruption case. The affair was used by the President's opponents to attack his entourage and good governance rhetoric.

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Rouhani's government abruptly introduced a sharp petrol price increase in November 2019, triggering nationwide protests. The crackdown by security forces caused a very large number of deaths according to Reuters and human rights organisations. Rouhani also provoked controversy by claiming that he had learned of the measure's implementation on Friday morning.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Rouhani had made improving civil rights a central campaign theme and published a Charter of Citizens' Rights. Human Rights Watch and other organisations nevertheless considered progress limited, while executions, prosecutions of journalists and activists, and restrictions on expression continued.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

Following a campaign highlighting women's participation, Rouhani presented a ministerial list in 2017 containing no women, prompting criticism among his reformist supporters. He subsequently appointed several women as vice-presidents or advisers.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

In his own account of nuclear negotiations, Rouhani explained that the suspension agreed with the Europeans created a calmer environment in which Iran had been able to continue and complete certain work related to the Isfahan conversion facility. His opponents portrayed these remarks as evidence that diplomacy had also served to gain time.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Directly implicated

In July 1999, Hassan Rouhani, then Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, promised a "resolute and decisive" response against people described as counter-revolutionaries or saboteurs and referred to charges potentially punishable by death. The episode contrasts with the more moderate image he later adopted.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Personally implicated