Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison, Gholam Hossein Esmaili, head of Tehran Province’s Justice Department, said.

Mashaei was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for charges of acting against national security, running propaganda against the Islamic Republic and insulting the judicial authorities, Esmaili told reporters in Tehran Sept. 12.

The issued sentence is tentative and can be appealed for a review within 20 days from the date of issuance.

Esmaili further said the case on Mashaei’s spying charge is still open in the judiciary and no verdict has been issued on it so far.

Mashaei, a close ally of Ahmadinejad, was arrested earlier in March, two days after he burnt a copy of a court verdict sentencing Hamid Baghaei, another Ahmadinejad ally, who was sentenced to 15 years, outside the British embassy in Tehran.

Baghaei has been pronounced guilty for the misuse of public funds when he was a vice-president under Ahmadinejad.