July 24, 2020
The daughter of a former Reformist cabinet minister has been arrested on charges of cornering a part of the medicine market to make a personal fortune, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported September 8.
“The court is set to try Shabnam Nematzadeh, along with another suspect, Ahmad Reza Lashkaripour,” ISNA cited the judge, Assadollah Massoudi-Maqam, as saying.
The two, according to Massoudi-Maqam, are facing a series of charges, including disruption of the local medicine market, violating the food and beverage laws, and collecting more than $42 million through unlawful channels.
Earlier, the Government Discretionary Punishments Organization had announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Shabnam Nematzadeh for smuggling $1.5 million worth of medicine.
At the first session of the trial, the prosecutor said, “The activities of the defendants have been a serious blow to the country’s pharmaceutical system, resulting in a lack of domestic production and a lack of essential drugs.” But for months, the regime has blamed a shortage of drugs on the United States, saying its sanctions keep Iran from importing drugs.
Shabnam Nematzadeh is the daughter of Mohammad-Reza Nematzadeh, 74, who was the minister of industry throughout the two terms of President Rafsanjani and the minister of trade, industry and mines during the first term of President Rohani.
He holds a bachelor of science degree in environmental engineering from California State Polytechnic University. He was a graduate student in industrial management at the University of California at Berkeley, but was unable to continue and returned to Iran.
The managing-director of Rasa Pharmed since 2009, Shabnam Nematzadeh, made headlines in February of last year, concerning the construction of a luxury villa in a posh neighborhood of Tehran, nicknamed as the Beverly Hills of the Iranian capital.
“A villa owned by the daughter of a former member of President Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet will be soon demolished, the state-run Mehr News Agency (MNA) cited the mayor of the city of Lavasan as saying February 28.
Lavasan is a wealthy town in Shemiranat County, Tehran Province, situated eleven kilometers (roughly seven miles) northeast of the capital.