May 12, 2023
Valiollah Seif (photo), who was fired as Central Bank governor in 2018 after his arrest on financial charges, was subsequently tried, convicted, cleared by the Supreme Court and freed last year. But then he was tried again on the same charges and he now has been convicted again and again sentenced to 10 years in prison for mismanaging funds. His deputy, Ahmad Araqchi, the brother of former Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, was also re-convicted and re-sentenced to the same eight-year term. Seif, now 71, is one of the few Iranian officials to be sanctioned by the United States (for moving funds to the Lebanese Hezbollah) and then jailed by the regime.
