March 16, 2018
Iran has jailed Hamid Baqai, a vice president under Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad, following his conviction for corruption.
“Police officers apprehended and transferred the convict to prison,” the Tehran prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.
Baqai was sentenced in December to 15 years in prison for embezzlement and illegal business transactions.
Baqai, 48, is very close to Ahmadi-nejad, serving as a vice president in Ahmadi-nejad’s second term. He also was Ahmadi-nejad’s chief of staff the last two years he was in office.
Baqai was briefly detained in 2015 on corruption charges.
The Council of Guardians refused to allow him to run for president in May 2017 despite (or perhaps because of) Ahmadi-nejad’s enthusiastic backing, and he was jailed for a few weeks last July.
