Ankara: An Iranian appeals court upheld the jail sentence of Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, son of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, on corruption and security charges, state news agency IRNA quoted a judiciary official as saying on Thursday.
Rafsanjani appealed three separate sentences issued in March by a Tehran Revolutionary Court that amounted to 15 years in jail on charges involving national security and embezzlement, Iranian media reported.
"The appeals court has confirmed his initial sentences but under Iranian law he will only serve the longest of the three, that is 10 years," said judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni-Ejei, IRNA reported.
He was also fined, ordered to return unspecified assets and barred from holding political office, Mohseni-Ejei said. No further information was immediately available.
The 45-year-old businessman`s father is chairman of the powerful unelected body, the Expediency Council, and served two terms as president from 1989 to 1997. He supported President Hassan Rouhani`s election campaign in 2013 and is a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei has in the past months ordered authorities to tackle corruption and Rouhani has renewed a campaign to eradicate it.
Mehdi Rafsanjani is the third high-profile figure to be jailed on corruption charges this year following two vice-presidents under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
