The Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante group issued a warning on April 22 that if Hassan Khomeini, a grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, traveled to Golestan province to deliver a speech alongside a prominent political figure rumored to be running for the parliamentary elections in 2016, he would be physically attacked.

It was a rare attack on the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the only other instance involving supporters of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shouting down Hassan Khomeini during a speech in 2010 commemorating the Iranian revolution.

After April's incident, Ansar-e Hezbollah was pressured to deny ever issuing the warning and wrote an open letter stating it “welcomes the memory of Imam [Khomeini]” to Golestan. Despite the vigilante group’s subsequent denial, the initial message was clear. Amid swirling rumors of a political run and hard-liner concerns over his ability to draw voters to the moderate and Reformist cause, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini is now fair game.

Seyyed Hassan Khomeini is the most notable of the 15 grandchildren of Ayatollah Khomeini, who is often referred to simply as “Imam” in Iran. Hassan Khomeini’s special role comes from a number of factors that have to do with patriarchal legacy — he is the eldest son of Ahmad Khomeini — and chance. Ayatollah Khomeini had two sons; his eldest, Mostafa, died in Iraq in 1977 while the family was in exile. Hassan Khomeini's father, Ahmad, became the supreme leader’s right-hand man and served as a key figure in the Khomeini household when Khomeini became the supreme leader.