Former Iranian president and key figure in the founding of the Islamic Republic, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was assassinated for his criticism of Tehran's leadership, his daughter alleged in a bombshell interview.

Axar.az, citing Iran International, reports that Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani stated this in a YouTube interview, "My father had become a thorn in their eye, so they eliminated him".

"Killing him wasn’t the work of Russia or Israel. He sided with the people and spoke out, and they felt he was in their way — so he had to be removed," she added.

On January 8, 2017, it was officially announced that the president of Iran from 1989 to 1997 had suddenly died after swimming at a pool belonging to the Expediency Discernment Council he chaired.

Officially, his death was attributed to a heart attack, but suspicions quickly arose, fueled by Rafsanjani’s complex political legacy.

In her interview on Tuesday, Rafsanjani's daughter blamed the highest echelons of power in the Islamic Republic for her father's death.