Mohammad Khatami

Following the 2026 memorandum between Iran and the United States, Khatami publicly urged both supporters and critics of the system to support negotiations and move towards lasting peace. This position formed part of an internal struggle in which ultraconservatives denounced the agreement as capitulation.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Personally implicated

Mohammad Khatami did not vote in the March 2024 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections after criticising the process as neither free nor competitive. His public abstention was a symbolic political gesture by a former president.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

Following his support for opposition leaders in 2009, Khatami faced increasing restrictions: a reported travel ban, followed by a prohibition on Iranian media publishing his name or image. Judicial officials publicly confirmed several of these restrictions.

State of the evidence

Documented

After Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, Khatami proposed a referendum asking Iranians whether they accepted the political situation. He also declared invalid confessions made by reformists during mass trials, arguing that they had been obtained under extraordinary circumstances.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Images from a visit to Italy apparently showing Khatami shaking hands with unveiled women triggered a campaign by ultraconservative clerics, a complaint before the Special Clerical Court and calls for him to be defrocked. One woman present stated that she had indeed shaken his hand.

Attribution

Directly implicated

The Guardian Council disqualified thousands of reformist candidates ahead of the 2004 parliamentary elections. While allies threatened to resign, Khatami chose to remain in office, and some within his camp criticised his response as too conciliatory. After the conservative victory, he withdrew two bills central to his reform programme.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

A series of murders of dissidents and intellectuals in 1998 triggered a major crisis during Khatami's presidency. An official investigation established with his support concluded that serving Intelligence Ministry agents had participated in the murders, leading to arrests and the minister's resignation.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

After condemning the initial attack on student dormitories, Khatami subsequently called for the demonstrations to end and described their continuation as a deviation that had to be suppressed "with force and determination", while security forces were regaining control of Tehran.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Personally implicated

Mohammad Khatami left the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in 1992 following a strong conservative campaign against his relatively liberal policies on the press, cinema and cultural creativity.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility