{"id":221743,"date":"2020-07-07T18:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=221743"},"modified":"2023-01-24T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T10:55:08","slug":"corruption-in-the-mullahs-regime-ruling-iran-part-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/publications\/special-reports\/corruption-in-the-mullahs-regime-ruling-iran-part-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Corruption in the Mullahs\u2019 Regime Ruling Iran \u2013 Part 7"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Corruption
Iranian regime’s judiciary is deep in a black hole of corruption<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Judiciary is deep in a black hole of corruption\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To better understand the Iranian regime\u2019s institutionalized corruption<\/a>, it is necessary to refer to the regime\u2019s Judiciary. Although it is not possible to shed light on all aspects of this corrupt institution, we can identify and understand parts of this organized corruption by going through reports and news published in this regard over the last few years.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of these cases is that of Akbar Tabari<\/a> and his current trial. He <\/span>has been <\/span>Executive Vice President and Director General of Finance of the Judiciary for more than 20 years. Therefore, his trial, in addition to being vastly covered by media, is very important.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is Akbar Tabari?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tabari<\/a> was the deputy of former Judiciary Chief <\/span>Sadeq<\/span> Larijani<\/a>. Despite having a top position within the Judiciary there are few reports about him prior to his arrest and trial. As an engineer, Tabari spent much of his career in the regime\u2019s Judiciary without having any legal expertise.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Judiciary was criticized and identified as a <\/span>center<\/span> of corruption during Tabari\u2019s tenure. Yet, he was able to stay in the shadows for years.\u00a0 His name was heard and read within four months of his dismissal in 2018. Finally, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)<\/a> Intelligence arrested him on July 14, 2019. A glance of his controversial case could clarify and show the traces of corruption within other organizations and institutions of the mullahs\u2019 regime.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Tabari\u2019s indictment, along with receiving dozen billion toman direct bribes, he has illegally received a 300 square <\/span>meter<\/span> (sqm) plot of land in Karim Khan street in Tehran, a 1,657 sqm forested land in <\/span>Lavasan<\/span>, a 108 sqm office-apartment in <\/span>Qeytarieh<\/span>, northern Tehran, five land pieces and a villa in <\/span>Babolsar<\/span>, northern Iran, three housing units in <\/span>Farmaniyeh<\/span> Flora Tower, and three residential apartments in Northern <\/span>Kamranieh<\/span>, Tehran.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Akbar-Tabari\"
Akbar Tabari in the regime’s court<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tabari\u2019s <\/span>defense<\/span> over receiving these huge amounts of money and lands in <\/span>Lavasan<\/span>, not only clarifies this issue but sheds light on the regime\u2019s institutionalized corruption.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He told the judge: \u201cIf I demand 800 billion <\/span>tomans<\/span>, these brothers will give it to me. And if I want entire <\/span>Lavasan<\/span> and its factory, they will give<\/span> them<\/span> to me. This is called friendship. If you do not have such friends, it is none of [my] business. If they <\/span>ask <\/span>the same <\/span>favor from me<\/span>,<\/span> I will do it for them.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-300x100\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Corrupted Judges\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tabari is just one example of the institutionalized corruption of the regime\u2019s Judiciary, which has been revealed to the public. Therefore, to whitewash corruption in this body, which ultimately ends at the top of the regime, they stage trials of well-known corrupt people. In other words, they are being sacrificed to save the regime’s top officials.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje\u2019i, the Judiciary\u2019s first Deputy, during a press conference in June 2019 said: \u201c60 judges have been fired within the last 12 months. Some of them are permanently dismissed <\/span>from governmental and Judiciary services. But some of them are just dismissed from Judiciary. Some have dismissed by redemption.\u00a0 In addition to dismissal and disqualification, some are being prosecuted.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tehran\u2019s former Prosecutor <\/span>Saeed Mortazavi<\/span> was <\/span>one of the judges <\/span>permanently dismissed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mortazavi was a former head of a Press Court and former Tehran\u2019s former Prosecutor who, for many years, seized more than a hundred publications and imprisoned hundreds of journalists or even internal critics of the regime. His name was mentioned in the report of the regime\u2019s Sixth Majlis [Parliament] Investigative Committee as the perpetrator in the murder case of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer, and in the report of the eighth Majlis Research Committee as the main culprit in the case of torture and murder of prisoners in Kahrizak Detention Center during the 2009 nationwide Iran protests.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Saeed-Mortazavi\"
Saeed Mortazavi was involved in the murder of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian journalist. He was also involved in the torture and murder of young people arrested during the 2009 uprising<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to his political-security charges, he was charged with financial fraud and embezzlement in two other separate investigative reports. In the report of the Seventh Majlis Research and Investigation Committee of the regime’s Judiciary in 2099, Mortazavi was accused of “selling entrance exam questions”. The report of the Ninth Majlis’s investigation of the Social Security Organization accused Mortazavi of billions of Tomans of financial misconduct, including the illegal transfer of 138 companies belonging to the Social Security Organization to Babak Zanjani, a well-known corrupt figure.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mortazavi went to court for his social security case and was sentenced to 70 lashes for illegal seizure of state property. However, the execution of this sentence was cancelled in February 2019 due to the amnesty issued by the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei<\/span>. <\/span>During the Kahrizak trial, Mortazavi was initially sentenced to five years in prison, dismissal of service, and a 200,000 tomans fine. His prison sentence was reduced to two years for “expressing regret”, but he did not fully complete this and was released in September 2019, after serving two-thirds of his imprisonment.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In another case, Mahmoud Sadeqi, then-Member of Majlis, revealed in November 2016 that Sadeq Larijani, then-Judiciary Chief, had deposited billions of tomans of the Judiciary\u2019s funds to his personal account. After this, Sadeqi spoke of Larijani\u2019s account on many occasions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In March 2017, during the parliament\u2019s session, he said: \u201cThe Judiciary has paid 285 billion tomans more than its legal fees as special and extraordinary rewards and salaries, and the financial violations of this power have been ten times more than the violations of astronomical salaries.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The career and corruption cases of some of these corrupted Judges, such as fugitive Judge Gholam-Reza Mansouri, who was murdered in Romania, and corrupt press-judge Bijan Ghassem-Zadeh, are only a small part of the financial performance of judiciary figures, which have been publicly examined in official Iranian institutions. Now, as the regime reaches its end, we will witness the opening of other financial and non-financial cases of corrupted judges.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mansouri was one of the famous defendants in Tabari\u2019s case. He was the head of Branch 9 of the regime\u2019s Culture and Media Court, and later became the executive judge of Lavasanat district. During his tenure, Mansouri<\/a> had committed a great deal of corruption. He is accused of accepting a bribe of 500,000 euros before fleeing from Iran to Europe. A few days before his days, in a video message, Mansouri emphasized he \u201cdeeply believes\u201d in the regime, its Judiciary, and Khamenei, and \u201chas never turned his back on them.\u201d\u00a0 Yet, expressing regret, unlike Mortazavi, did not work this time, and Mansouri was suspiciously killed in Bucharest, Romania.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gholamreza-Mansouri\"
Gholamreza Mansouri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another case of these Judiciary officials belongs to Ali-Akbar Heydarifar. Heydarifar was the assistant prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court and had direct involvement in sending detainees of the 2009 Iran protests to Kahrizak detention centre. He never regretted killing people there. Two years after the tragedy at Kahrizak, in a letter to the press, Heydarifar called those detainees \u201cthugs\u201d and highlighted that \u201cdealing with them deserves a reward\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, a couple of years after the 2009 incidents, it became clear that in addition to his mistreatment and brutality regarding protesters, Heydarifar had vast corruption cases.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In June 2017, Mohseni-Eje’i acknowledged: \u201cHeydarifar has cases [of corruption]. [One] has not been finalized but the other one, having some accusations, have heavy punishment\u2026 For his second case the maximum sentence, which is 15 years of imprisonment, has been issued.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In July 2017, <\/span>Gholam<\/span>-Hossain Esmaili, then-Chief Justice of Tehran Province counted <\/span>Heydarifar\u2019s<\/span> crimes as: \u201cillegal confiscation, illegal use of state\u2019s property, accepting bribes, using weapons and fights in different cases\u201d. In February 2018, Abbas Jafari-<\/span>Dolat<\/span> Abadi, then-Tehran Prosecutor, without giving further explanation, announced another indictment against <\/span>Heydarifar<\/span> on six other charges, which have not been clarified.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-300x100\"<\/a><\/p>\n

History of corruption in regime\u2019s Judiciary, according to state-run media<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mohammad Yazdi, the first head of the regime\u2019s Judiciary, was accused of various charges of corruption. One of the most controversial revelations was made by Abbas Palizdar, secretary of the Judiciary Inquiry and Review Committee in the 7th Islamic Consultative Assembly of the Judiciary on May 03, 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ali-Khamenei-and-Mohammad-Yazdi-former-head-of-the-Iranian-regimes-judiciary\"
Ali Khamenei and Mohammad Yazdi, former head of the Iranian regime’s judiciary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his part of his speech, while referring to the Yazdi\u2019s financial violations during the project of building a \u201cJudiciary University\u201d in Qom, said: \u201cThey obtained the approval of Khamenei to open a female school for judicial studies in Qom. After obtaining the approval, they immediately sought financial support for the project and, in this case, they asked for the transfer of ownership of Dena Tire Factory. To evaluate the price of the factory some official experts from the Justice Department who also worked for the Judiciary priced it at $126 million while its actual price was over $600 million.\u202f In their evaluations, the properties owned by the factory, which amounted to millions of dollars were not even considered. This was Dena Factory which went to Yazdi when he was the head of the Judiciary. But when it came to making the payment, he asked for a discount and he immediately got 50% off. He wrote again and asked for more discount and it went on five times and, in the end, he was asked to pay only 10 million, a drop from 126. But even so, they said they did not have 10 million to pay, therefore they were proposed to pay 80% in long term installments and 20%, that is 2 million, in cash. They again said that they did not have any money to pay for the 2 million, therefore they were offered a loan of 23 million dollars by the Iranian National Industries Organization. They were then asked to see [the] Ayatollah \u2026 to get his signature and take over the Factory. It was shortly after this that the factory was sold and transferred to those who carried out manipulations from behind the scene.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While referring to Yazdi\u2019s other case of corruption, Palizdar said: “Yazdi wrote and said \u2018Mr. Foroozesh, my son Hamid is unemployed\u2019 and asked for special arrangements to allow his son to make use of the forests in the north to export the wood. This was while his son was director-general in the Judiciary. Unfortunately, the forests in the north have been looted.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who proceeded Yazdi, was also accused of having several cases of corruption. Tabari became the Judiciary\u2019s Financial Director. Some of Sahroudi\u2019s corruption cases were revealed, during the regime\u2019s infightings, by the Parliaments Investigation Committees.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the report of the Ninth Majlis Inquiry Commission of the Social Security Organization, Mortazavi, who was appointed by Shahroudi as the Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office and later became the head of the Social Security Organization, received seven very expensive lands, without holding an auction, from Adalat University had which was under the supervision of Hashemi Shahroudi. However, according to the law, the property of the Social Security Organization had to be sold at auction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another stunning report, which was conducted by the regime\u2019s Seventh Majlis over the Judiciary\u2019s actions under Shahroudi read: \u201cUnfortunately, the Judiciary has not enough resolution to punish economic criminals. According to the cases that have reached the Board of Inquiry, we can well understand the negligence in dealing with economic corruption and sometimes collusion with corrupt people. In this regard, although sending a lot of questions to the judiciary, the board tried to make the Judiciary answer them. Unfortunately, the board’s questions were not answered.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the Majlis Inquiry Board\u2019s report refers to the accounts possessed by the Judiciary Chief, which had funds deposited by individuals to the court as fines, bail or other items.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this regard, the report adds: \u201cThe Board, in a letter to the Judiciary Chief, asked his excellency about the fixed amount of people\u2019s deposit to the Judiciary, the interest of the financial transactions of the referred accounts the license and the method of using these funds. Unfortunately, despite repeated follow-up, the Judiciary has not given an answer to these issues.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the Judiciary\u2019s Assistant Financial Deputy gave answers to these questions, which, according to the Inquiry Board, did not match the results of the inquiry from the Central Bank and the National Bank on the number of deposits and their interests.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The power struggle and regime\u2019s infighting<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Larijani had many critics during his tenure as the regime\u2019s Judiciary Chief, including the regime\u2019s former <\/span>P<\/span>resident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and then-MP Sadeghi, who accused Larijani of financial corruption.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following his dismissal from the Judiciary, Khamenei appointed Larijani as the head of the regime\u2019s Expediency Discernment Council. With this appointment, Khamenei was intending to keep Larijani secret. Yet, during the regime\u2019s infightings, other regime officials continued to attack Larijani and speak about his corruption. Therefore, <\/span>i<\/span>n a statement, the Office of the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, in addition to defending Larijani, also denied allegations of corruption against Tabari<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The statement read<\/span>: \u201c<\/span>Some of the allegations against the executive Vice President of The Judiciary have already been investigated in court and have been proven to be false. The former Head of The Judiciary had independently examined them and found them to be wrong.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Tabari<\/a> was arrested 16 days after this statement.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Due to his position, Larijani had access to important cases and since he is concerned about the revelation of his role in the ten-year presidency of the corrupt judiciary, he had previously warned regime officials, including Raisi<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u202fOn August 7, 2019, Larijani said: \u201cMy heart is the treasury of secrets of accusations against Members of Majlis, Deputies and family members of officials.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These words terrified the regime\u2019s officials, particularly Khamenei, that further revelation of cases related to Larijani and his probable revelations in retaliation will increase the regime\u2019s problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

#Iran<\/a>: A glance at Ebrahim Raisi\u2019s background, known for his role in the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners, clarifies who he is and why Khamenei has chosen him as the head of the Judiciary and possibly the future supreme leader #HumanRights<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/lSng19uezK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n