Whistleblower MP Gets Jailtime As Senior Insiders Go Free
An Iranian lawmaker who revealed bribery involving a former minister and at least 75 members of parliament has been sentenced to one year behind bars.
An Iranian lawmaker who revealed bribery involving a former minister and at least 75 members of parliament has been sentenced to one year behind bars.
Ahmad Alirezabeigi, representing Tabriz in the parliament, told Shargh daily Tuesday that his second court session was held Monday on charges of "spreading lies,” a legal term in the Islamic Republic similar to libel.
He added that he has evidence on the bribery case and had argued that his trial should be held publicly with the presence of a jury because the current court – which handles cases related to state officials -- does not have the jurisdiction to handle this case.
However, he stated that apparently his explanation was not accepted, and the court issued the verdict. If the one-year prison sentence is upheld by the court of appeals, he must immediately go to prison.
Alirezabeigi revealed in late April that over 70 SUVs were offered to lawmakers at a lower price by the industry ministry ahead of their debate on a motion last December to impeach former industry minister Reza Fatemi-Amin. Forty lawmakers had demanded his impeachment for “inadequate performance” including failure to control rising prices for domestically produced vehicles, their low quality, preventing competitive imports, and corruption in the industry.
In mid-June, he revealed more information about the bribery case, saying contracts had been finalized for the transfer of "300 vehicles," of which 147 were accounted for but the whereabouts of 153 vehicles were still unknown, calling on the public prosecutor to investigate and determine what has happened.
“Most of the 147 delivered vehicles have been handed over to unknown individuals who are apparently connected to members of the parliament," he added.
More than 200 members of parliament sent text messages to the public or told the media that they were never involved in the scheme and did not benefit from it. The media published a list of others who have not denied receiving the SUVs. These include both supporters of Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and hardliner Paydari Front lawmakers.
The whistleblower MP, who was also banned from speaking during parliamentary sessions in June, was indicted for “making a claim without evidence” in May, a ruling that he rejected saying the parliament and its presiding board have violated the law.
The regime’s conduct is growing more and more opaque since hardliners won a big majority in managed elections in 2020 and President Ebrahim Raisi was elected in 2021 in a similarly engineered vote.
Prosecutions such as that of Alirezabeigi are taking place while former officials connected to powerful insiders who have been jailed for their involvement in colossal embezzlement or even criminal cases are being freed without serving their time.
On Tuesday, judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi announced that Hossein Fereydoun -- the brother of former president Hassan Rouhani – and Hadi Razavi – the son-in-law of former labor minister Mohammad Shariatmadari – were released from prison.
Razavi, sentenced to 20 years for paying bribes to managers of Iran’s Sarmayeh Bank, had started his sentence in 2019. Fereydoun was sentenced to five years in 2019 but rarely served his sentence as he was on long furloughs due to “medical concerns.”
Referring to Fereydoun, Setayeshi said, "We cannot keep someone if he has a medical problem." He made the comment despite the fact that a lot of Iranians have died or are suffering in prison due to the authorities’ deliberate denial of medical care.
Late in June, the judiciary announced its former deputy Akbar Tabari was released from prison after serving just 45 months of a 31-year prison term after posting a bail of 3 trillion rials ($6 million). Before being arrested in July 2019, Akbar Tabari held senior financial and executive positions within the Iranian judiciary for nearly 20 years.
Earlier in June, state media also announced the release of Mehdi Hashemi, the son of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Mohammad-Ali Najafi, a former Tehran mayor and minister of education who had confessed to the murder of his wife Mitra Ostad in 2019.
