January 24-2014
. . . wins court case
An Iranian convicted in England of laundering $18 million in drug money from Iran cannot be kicked out of Britain because that would breach his human rights, a court has ruled.
Mahmood Koorangi, 62, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2004 after he admitted acting on behalf of drug traffickers in Iran.
The Home Office, Britain’s version of an interior ministry, launched an effort to have him sent back to Iran after he was released from prison.
But he has now been allowed to remain in the UK after an immigration court ruled his expulsion would flout Article 3 of the European Human Rights Act.
A relieved Koorangi told the Mirror of London: “I’m staying in Britain. It’s better here. Iran has been bad ever since the revolution.”
He added: “What I did in the past was a mistake. But, if I go back home, they’ll kill me.”
At his first trial, a court heard how he laundered the drug profits through complex financial transactions in the UK to cover up their origin.
Police raided Koorangi’s London home when they heard of his role and discovered a cash-counting machine, fax machine, face masks and files that showed he had laundered more than $18 million over a six-month period.
Koorangi had owned a clothing factory in Iran, but his business was taken away by the government, the Mirror reported.
He arrived in the UK in November 2000 and studied English until being introduced to a man who was not named in court but who set Koorangi up to handle the money laundering.
The court was told how Koorangi was careful to hide his new wealth, such as driving an old car.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith told Koorangi at the time: “You pleaded guilty to agreeing to assist in the laundering of vast sums of money which were the proceeds of drug trafficking or other criminal conduct. You were the essential cog in this sophisticated operation, without which it could not continue.”
Koorangi served just three years of his seven-year sentence. He was released in 2007, and the UK Border Agency then filed a deportation order to send him back to Iran.
But Koorangi won his fight to stay after claiming he would face persecution in Iran because of the way the regime treats criminals.
An immigration judge ruled: “The authorities would want information from him to investigate the Iranian end of the operation.” The judge said the methods used in such questioning by the Islamic Republic “amounted to treatment that breached Article 3 of the Human Rights Act” – which relates to torture and degrading treatment.
Koorangi told the Mirror: “I have left behind my criminal life. I don’t do that anymore. I now work part-time as a fashion designer. I don’t want to go back to Iran because my situation over there is very complicated.”