October 14, 2022
An aide to a controversial cabinet minister who is a relative of one of Iran’s most senior ayatollahs has been arrested, supposedly in the act of accepting a cash bribe.
The arrested man is Qasem Makarem-Shirazi, the grandson of the brother of Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, perhaps the most influential cleric who has declined to take any posts in the government.
The younger Makarem-Shirazi is the chief inspector under Transport and Housing Minister Rostam Qasemi, a ministry that doles out huge contracts for railroads, highways and housing complexes.
In an apparent effort to avoid being tied to the bribe, the ayatollah’s office issued a statement stating that the arrested man was not the ayatollah’s son or grandson, but failing to address whether he was related otherwise to the accused.
Transport Minister Qasemi was also accused of trying to avert any linkage with the case by checking into a Tehran hospital and saying he required a spinal operation. But Khabar Online reported Qasemi attended a public meeting just a few days after he was in the hospital bed saying he was awaiting spinal surgery.
Iran International said Qasem Makarem-Shirazi was initially named as a candidate for the post of deputy minister of transport and housing, but intelligence organizations objected to his appointment. The minister then appointed him as chief inspector, a post that did not need clearance from the intelligence authorities.
Majlis Deputy Ardeshir Motahari wrote in several tweets that the minister should be summoned to the Majlis and questioned. He asserted that Qasemi was feigning illness.
Khabar Online wrote that the scandal has heightened expectations that Qasemi, who was already in the Majlis’s crosshairs, would be fired. Khabar Online said President Raisi was likely to take advantage of the case and fire his minister to try to maintain his reputation as a corruption fighter.
Of course, the mere fact that a relative of an ayatollah and an aide to a minister is caught accepting bribes does not prove that either the ayatollah or the minister is implicated in the crime. And, so far, no one has offered any evidence of their involvement.