The grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran’s Islamic revolution, is reported to have left the country to avoid attending Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidential inauguration.  Hassan Khomeini, a supporter of the defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has travelled to an unnamed “neighbouring country” to escape official pressure to be present at next month’s swearing-in ceremony, according to the pro-reformist news website, Salaamnews.

His absence would be a blow to the authorities’ hopes of using the hallowed Khomeini family name to confer legitimacy on the event in the face of allegations that Ahmadinejad owes his re-election to fraud.

Hassan — a member of the pro-reformist Association of Combatant Clerics — is the most well-known and politically active of Khomeini’s surviving descendants.

He has previously been attacked by hardliners for his moderate views and for an allegedly opulent lifestyle.

Last year, a pro-Ahmadinejad website accused him of indulging in steam baths and driving a BMW after he publicly urged military groups to stay out of politics.