TEHRAN – Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, a close confidant of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was arrested on Saturday evening for investigation, judicial authorities said.

According to the Office of Prosecutor General of Tehran, Rahim-Mashaei, the former presidential chief-of-staff, has been arrested by the police with a warrant issued by the office, Tasnim reported.

A few days earlier, Rahim-Mashaei had set fire to a court verdict sentencing Hamid Baghaei, another figure in Ahmadinejad’s trilateral alliance, to imprisonment.

Ahmadinejad appointed Rahim-Mashaei as first vice president in 2009 until Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered his dismissal. He served as Ahmadinejad’s presidential chief of staff from 2009 to 2013.

MH/PA