When the arrest of Hossein Fereydoun, President Hassan Rouhani’s brother, was announced July 16 at a live recording for a video channel associated with conservative Fars News, the audience erupted in applause. Conservatives have long sought his arrest, and so it was natural they would be elated by this news. While questions remain about the charges, the arrest sends a political message to the president, who is preparing to announce his new Cabinet as his second term begins.

On July 16, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the spokesman for the judiciary, said that bail was set for Fereydoun and since he did not put up the bail he was taken to prison. He added that Fereydoun will be released as soon as he puts up bail. According to an Iranian news website that published Mohseni-Ejei’s comments, the accusations against Rouhani are “financial matters” but not related to any specific bank, as has been previously speculated.

Conservative websites, some of which are affiliated with the country’s security agencies, have thrown various accusations of economic corruption at Fereydoun. Last year, Fereydoun missed a number of important meetings and was rumored to have been sidelined. During Iran’s presidential election in May, conservative candidate Ebrahim Raisi alluded to Fereydoun, saying that “some of the closest” people to the president have cases with the judiciary but that Rouhani was preventing the judiciary from pursuing the case.

Conservatives have accused Fereydoun of being involved with the exorbitant salaries scandal of June 2016, in which leaked documents revealed to the public that government employees were receiving astronomical salaries. Fereydoun has also been accused of intervening in the affairs of state-run banks. The administration has denied all of the accusations.