During a meeting with Iranian students last week, Ibrahim Raisi, the newly-appointed head of the Khomeiniist regime judiciary, unleashed an unprecedented attack on regime officials. “We must confront any official, in any capacity, who is corrupt, and there should be no red lines in that regard,” Raisi said.
Forty years ago, the Ayatollah Khomeini claimed that the self-styled “Islamic Revolution” was the “revolution of the oppressed,” and that the “downtrodden were the foot soldiers of the revolution.” According to Khomeini, the revolution was intended to establish the “government of God” in Iran, “free from any kind of human corruption.”
However, four decades later, corruption has engulfed the Islamist system to the point where the head of its own judiciary implicitly admits that the majority of regime officials in Iran are in fact corrupt.
Meanwhile, in recent years, corruption and exploitation of the country’s resources has become so widespread, that the regime has begun stealing from the pockets of ordinary citizens and workers. Ongoing nationwide protests by those who lost their assets to various forms of state-backed investment firms reveals the extent of malfeasance in Iran.
According to official reports in the regime’s own media, since 2018, the judiciary has filed 32 major corruption cases, including those of controversial figures who may have acted as “front men” for high-level regime officials. These include: Vahid Mazloumin, known as the King of Coins; Hamid Baqeri Dormani, known as the Super Bank-Debtor; Hossein Hedayati, known as the Billion-Dollar Man and Hadi Razavi, known, in his own words, as the Shia Capitalist Lobby.
Vahid Mazloumin and Muhammad Ismail Qasemi, who were in the currency business, were sentenced to death, and promptly executed. According to the court verdict, the two were convicted of “sowing corruption on earth, through the formation of a network of corruption and disturbance in the economic and monetary system by conducting illegal transactions, and massive smuggling of large currencies and coins.” One disturbing point to note regarding the execution of Mazloumin and Qasemi was that more a month after their executions, Tehran’s general prosecutor announced that Mazloumin’s case had not yet been completed.
Hamid Baqeri Dormani was also in the currency business. Despite the fact that his case had been repeatedly opened and closed for several years, he was suddenly charged with “sowing corruption on earth” and sentenced to death in late 2018. His execution too, was immediately carried out.
is yet another financial criminal whose case has proven to be convoluted. Hedayati’s trial led to lots of scandals. Indeed a lawyer was murdered in connection with his case. Contrary to what one would expect of a defendant in a major corruption trial, Hedayati appeared confident in court, certain that he would escape the death sentence. He was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison, $12 billion in restitution, and 74 lashes in public.
However, it seems that the assassination of a lawyer associated with the case, only hours after the announcement of the verdict, influenced those behind the scenes, postponing Hedayati’s sentencing to three weeks later. One day after the announcement of the guilty verdict, the judiciary spokesman changed “lashes in public” to “lashes in front of only a certain number of plaintiffs.”
Another controversial case is that of the Sarmayeh (Investment) Bank. The main defendant in this case was Hadi Razavi, the son-in-law of Mohammad Shariatmadari, a cabinet minister under Hassan Rouhani, and a close associate of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Razavi embezzled three billion dollars from the Sarmayeh Bank, and the Teachers’ Savings Fund some of which he used to produce TV series for the Islamic state-run TV networks. He was also a vocal and active advocate of Tehran’s military involvement in Syria.
Like Hedayati, in court, Razavi too was cavalier and treated the entire case contemptuously. His verdict has yet to be issued.
The Islamic Regime is one of the most corrupt systems in the world. Any opportunistic individual can enter the system, benefit from the windfall, and only occasionally get caught; even then, under very special circumstances. When dragged into court, these individuals’ cases are dealt with according to the whim of the grey eminences who hold sway over the judicial process. The stronger the mafia, the more likely its escape with a slap on the wrist.
In final analysis, many believe that the individuals who publicly go on trial and are imprisoned or executed for corruption are only acting as front men for the groups and individuals atop the Islamic regime’s power structure.
Source » isicrc