August 9, 2019
In a report on the first year of the anti-corruption drive or dered by the Supreme Leader, Iran’s Judiciary announced it has completed trials of almost a thousand people and sentenced nine to die.
Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossain Esmaili said a total of 978 verdicts had been issued by courts across Iran since last summer over cases directly related to misuse of public funds and graft.
He broke down the sentences as follows:
- Nine sentenced to hang.
- Four sentenced to life.
- 44 given 20-30 years
- 100 given 10-20 years.
- 731 given up to 10 years.
That left 93 unmentioned. That number presumably includes some people who were only fined and others found innocent.
The verdicts “prove the determination and serious resolve of the Judiciary in dealing with the corrupt,” said Esmaili, adding that authorities would pursue the cases until victims are fully compensated. The victims in such corruption cases are banks and the state.
Among those sentenced to death were people who got foreign exchange cheaply and used it to import consumer goods they were then able to sell at immense markups.
The edict from Khamenehi setting up these special corruption courts allows appeals from death sentences, but all other sentences are final.
In one case, more than a dozen public servants working for a government agency in Gilan province were found guilty of embezzlement and bribery. And 19 individuals received a combined 150 years over a notorious corruption case involving Padideh Shandiz, an enormous economic project in Mashhad.
But what most gripped public attention was the case of Hadi Razavi, the 35-year-old son-in-law of Mohammad Shariat-madari, a veteran Reformist politician currently serving as minister of labor.
Razavi has been handed a 20-year prison. According to prosecutors, the young tycoon received millions of dollars in loans without any collateral and lavished public funds on fancy cars and luxury tours across Europe.
Feeling the pinch of Western sanctions, ordinary Iranians have been closely monitoring the financial scandals that implicate children of some wealthy politicians, known as aghazadehs” — a Persian epithet for “children of the noble ones.” Their public remarks have sparked immense backlash every now and then. Last year, one boasted about finding success because he bore good genes.” The phrase has not stopped trending since and continues to be used for anyone who takes advantage of nepotism.
The Iranian Judiciary has been traditionally controlled by hardliners and reports solely to the Supreme Leader, leaving many wondering if the anti-corruption drive will transcend the political divide and remain nonpartisan. Al-Monitor said there are also lingering questions about some proceedings based on coerced confessions. For the war on corruption to be genuinely successful, calls are already growing for the judges to dig deeper.