Rafsanjani's son released on bail in Iran A son of Iran's former conservative president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been released on bail after spending more than two months in solitary confinement on charges of acting against the Islamic regime and financial corruption. Mehdi Hashemi was released on Sunday night after his family paid bail of IR100bn ($8.1m). No details were given on his interrogation or his likely trial date. The judiciary spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, only said on Monday that an indictment would be sent to the court "soon." But Mr Hashemi has reportedly told his family that his interrogators do not have any significant documents to prove the charges of corruption or his alleged role in helping stage unrest in protest after the disputed 2009 presidential election. The arrests of Mr Rafsanjani's son and daughter - Faezeh Hashemi has been serving a six-month jail sentence since late September on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda - are believed by analysts to be a warning to Mr Rafsanjani from hardliners that the former president should not exert his influence in the next presidential election. Political infighting has intensified in recent months as the fundamentalist and conservative camps prepare for the election in June when President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad will step down after serving two four-year terms - a constitutional limit. Mr Rafsanjani is not believed to be trying to run for president. But he has been campaigning for an end to the populist policies of Mr Ahmadi-Nejad and for the formation of a national unity government. He sees these as necessary for survival of the regime, facing unprecedented economic and international pressure over its nuclear programme. It is not yet clear if the release of his son means Mr Rafsanjani is gaining an upper hand over his hardline critics who are mainly positioned in the elite Revolutionary Guards, the office of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the judiciary. A recent disclosure of Mr Hashemi's telephone conversation on the internet with an expatriate journalist seemed designed to prevent his release. In the informal chat, which dated to October 2010, Mr Hashemi said Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the last say in all state affairs, had decided 15 years ago to gather a group of young loyalists in senior positions. This made elections meaningless, he said.