Disease, drug shortages grip overcrowded Iran prison

Over the past two months, Iran International has published three separate reports naming the trustees — oil brokers trusted by the Islamic Republic to sell Iran’s sanctioned oil — who have failed to return billions of dollars in oil proceeds to the country.

On September 28, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei criticized delays in handling cases involving trustees with outstanding debts and called for swift rulings. Iran International has obtained a confidential Supreme National Security Council document in which the council’s deputy for economic affairs confirms that oversight bodies alter the trustees’ debt figures according to their own interests, inflating some debts and understating others.

The council’s deputy has asked the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC Intelligence Organization to report on the missing funds. The letter makes it easier for IRGC Intelligence, the principal organization implicated in the corruption surrounding oil sales, to gain access to the case.

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Trustees’ case returns to IRGC Intelligence

Two informed sources in the Oil Ministry and an oversight body told Iran International that the Supreme Audit Court and the General Inspection Organization are currently pursuing the trustees’ cases. But through the maneuvering of a senior security official and an order from the Supreme National Security Council, the case has effectively returned to the IRGC Intelligence Organization.

That senior security official, whose photograph Iran International is publishing for the first time, is Mostafa Ahadi. He is now deputy head of Unit 600 of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, having previously served as its deputy for economic affairs. Through his positions in IRGC Intelligence and the Supreme National Security Council over the past decade, Ahadi has had a firm grip on Iran’s oil sales.

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Several months ago, Brigadier General Mehdi Sayyari appointed Ahadi deputy head of Unit 600. Sayyari served for years as deputy head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization and became acting head of one of the country’s most important security organizations following the killing of Majid Khademi.

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In the late 2010s, when responsibility for selling oil under sanctions was assigned to the Supreme National Security Council, Ahadi joined the council as deputy for economic affairs. Without his security background becoming known to international organizations, he attended two BRICS summits, in Russia and Brazil.

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His involvement in Iran’s oil trade is so extensive that he even accompanies Oil Ministry officials on visits to oil terminals on Kharg Island.

While serving on the Supreme National Security Council, Ahadi sent his former deputy, Mohammad Javad Bavand, to the council’s cover committee as a representative of IRGC Intelligence, ostensibly to oversee sanctioned oil sales. His principal responsibility, however, was to secure profits from corruption in the oil trade for the IRGC Intelligence network.

Bavand, who served as a special assistant to the oil minister for oil sales during Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, returned to the role about four months ago. According to a General Inspection Organization document first published by Iran International, he assigned the sale of a large 86-million-barrel oil consignment to four trustees with outstanding debts, including Mohammad Hadi Momenin.

Bavand’s close ties to Mohammad Hadi Momenin

Iran International has obtained exclusive information indicating that the relationship between the two extends well beyond this corruption case.

A General Inspection Organization document published by Iran International revealed that the sale of 86 million barrels of Iran’s oil had been assigned to four trustees with outstanding debts.

Six years ago, Mohammad Hadi Momenin was arrested on suspicion of disrupting the foreign exchange system. He had received hundreds of millions of dollars in preferential foreign currency to import machinery for the paper industry and had failed to return the funds. At the time, Mohammad Javad Bavand used his influence to have the case closed. Momenin, who was a shareholder in Mahan Industries and Mines Development Holding, then appointed Bavand to a management position as his representative. Gardeshgari Bank is the holding company’s principal shareholder.

On Monday, September 28, Hadi Ghavami, the parliamentary representative for Esfarayen, told a plenary session: “The trustees who took oil out of the country also stole $300 million, equivalent to 69 trillion tomans, from Gardeshgari Bank, and under these circumstances, the Central Bank has given them a credit line with a 45 percent penalty.”

In June 2020, Momenin was arrested again on allegations of financial corruption and disrupting the foreign exchange system, but his case was once more closed with Bavand’s help. An investigator’s report quoted Momenin as saying that he had used his employees to register numerous shell companies in China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. The companies existed for between three and 14 months.

Another part of the case revealed that Momenin’s holding company had received large loans from Mellat Bank, Refah Bank, Karafarin Bank, Bank of Industry and Mine, Saman Bank and Middle East Bank, yet none of the banks had filed a complaint against him.

In July, the Central Bank published a list of major bank debtors showing that Mohammad Hadi Momenin owed Karafarin Bank 743 billion tomans.

Two informed sources in the Oil Ministry and an oversight body told Iran International that Ahmad Baharvandi, who became Karafarin Bank’s chief executive five years ago, was in fact an associate of Bavand within IRGC Intelligence. Both men studied at Imam Sadiq University. Mostafa Ahadi also studied there and was a member of the university’s student Basij organization.

At Bavand’s request, Baharvandi did not pursue Momenin’s 743-billion-toman debt. In turn, Momenin took Bavand on a trip to China.

Mohammad Hadi Momenin was a member of the Ministry of Intelligence’s oil sales corruption network known as Shayan, which failed to return $2 billion in oil proceeds.

Secret IRGC meeting held to counter reporting on trustee corruption

After Bavand returned to the Oil Ministry, Momenin became his trusted trustee for oil sales despite a warning from the General Inspection Organization. Over the past month, following the publication of investigative reports, Momenin and Bavand have found themselves back in the headlines against their wishes.

Mostafa Ahadi, the godfather of the IRGC Intelligence corruption network, used his new position to address the problem. Two informed sources in the Oil Ministry and an oversight body told Iran International that a secret meeting was held two weeks ago at the IRGC’s media headquarters. Those present included Abdullah Zeighami, also known as Brigadier General Moshfegh, Bavand and Ahadi.

The meeting’s objective was to prevent media coverage of trustee corruption. One result was the removal of reports about the scandal from Mehr News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Propagation Organization, and Hamshahri, a newspaper owned by Tehran Municipality.

At the same time, Ahadi used the Supreme National Security Council to return responsibility for the trustees’ cases to IRGC Intelligence so that the security organization’s cycle of profits from oil sales would continue.

Mediators are expected to hold separate talks with the United States and Iran on Monday or Tuesday over an amended version of a seven-day proposal Tehran presented on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, sources briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Qatari mediators remained in the United States for the discussions, an official briefed on the negotiations said.

The diplomatic effort comes with divisions visible inside Iran over negotiations and the country’s nuclear policy, while military officials continue to warn about another confrontation with Washington.

Diplomacy meets resistance at home

A group of serving and former Iranian officials called Monday for an immediate halt to cooperation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and withdrawal from the pact “as soon as possible.”

“Continued membership in this treaty is not in the country’s interest, and we call for withdrawal from it as a strategic necessity,” the signatories said.

Former intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi and other former officials from the administrations of Ebrahim Raisi and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed the statement alongside serving lawmakers.

Hardline newspaper Kayhan also criticized Iran’s diplomatic approach, saying officials had shown excessive enthusiasm for negotiations during President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to New York and sent Washington “a signal of weakness.”

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, meanwhile, emphasized Iran’s military position, describing the country as the “world’s top power” according to what he called “divine calculations” and saying enemy forces had been pushed back from waters near Iran.

Military pressure centers on Hormuz

Iranian officials continued to point to the Strait of Hormuz in their warnings to Washington.

“We are acting with authority in the northern Arabian Sea and east of the Strait of Hormuz, and we will not let anyone pass. On the other side, our IRGC brothers are also standing firm,” army deputy coordinator Habibollah Sayyari said.

Lawmaker Salar Velayatmadar said Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab if the United States launched another attack.

Rial falls under trade and oil pressure

The economic backdrop to the negotiations has also deteriorated, with the US dollar listed at 2.45 million rials on Iran’s open market Monday.

Iranian businesses are facing higher costs in trade with neighboring Iraq as banks tighten checks and anti-money-laundering requirements, head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce, said.

The main danger was not a complete halt in trade but a gradual loss of Iran’s share of the Iraqi market, Jahangbakhsh Sanjabi Shirazi, said.

Washington is also seeking to restrict Iran’s oil income more. Iran could have “nothing left to trade for anything” within two weeks after completing its remaining oil deliveries to China, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday.

About 15 million barrels remained out for delivery, Bessent estimated.

Pressure on Iranian financial operations extends into Europe. Italy’s central bank told Iran International on Monday that the Rome branch of Iran’s Bank Sepah has remained under special administration since October 2025 following the European Union’s adoption of restrictive measures against Iran.

The weakening rial and growing obstacles to trade are adding to Iran’s economic pressure, while warnings over Hormuz and recent military exchanges keep the risk of renewed conflict hanging over the country and the region.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that oil flows through the strait were averaging nearly 13 million barrels a day, with shipments exceeding pre-conflict levels on at least one day last week.

“There was a day just this last week where over 20 million barrels of oil, more than pre-conflict levels, flowed out of the strait,” Wright told Fox News. The current average was “almost 13 million barrels a day,” he added.

Wright attributed pressure on energy prices more to limited refining capacity than to the volume of oil moving through Hormuz.

Iran warns shipping companies

Iran, meanwhile, portrayed the strait as a closely controlled corridor where vessels must comply with rules set by its authorities.

Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority warned charterers against directing ships through routes it considers unauthorized, saying companies that do so could be placed on a non-compliance list and vessels associated with them could face restrictions.

The authority also published a letter it said came from the owners of an unnamed vessel apologizing for an unauthorized transit. According to the letter, the charterer instructed the ship to proceed without completing required declarations and approvals, putting the master under commercial pressure to comply.

The warnings were accompanied by threats from Iranian military officials. Armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi said the United States would be “slapped” if it intervened in Hormuz.

A Revolutionary Guards Navy official challenged US President Donald Trump to send a warship near the strait if Washington believed it controlled the waterway, threatening US warships as far away as the Indian Ocean if fighting resumed.

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami also said the war was not over and that the military must remain prepared for further fighting.

Regional calls for safe passage

The dispute has drawn responses from countries concerned about commercial shipping and energy supplies.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told the UN General Assembly that Muscat would continue working to safeguard navigation through Hormuz, urging restraint, dialogue and political solutions.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said 146 countries had condemned Iran over attacks on civilian shipping, describing the Islamic Republic as increasingly isolated.

The rising oil flows point to increased movement through one of the world’s most important energy corridors, but warnings to shipping companies and threats of renewed military action show that control and security in Hormuz remain central to the conflict.

Hashemi Bazargani was denied a lawyer of her own choosing throughout the proceedings, the source said. She is held in Qazvin Central Prison, in the city 150 kilometers west of Tehran, and is accused of sending the location of a military site to "the enemy," a charge she has denied.

In an audio message from prison earlier this year, she said security agents raided her home at 2:30 in the morning on April 4, cutting through the door with a metal grinder. She had been living with her elderly, ailing mother.

After her arrest, she said, she was beaten with a pipe and a baton on the head, neck and shoulders during long interrogations, breaking two teeth and leaving her with dizziness, shortness of breath and heart problems. No doctor came to examine her despite visible bruising and injuries, and her requests to be taken to the coroner's office to document the beating went unanswered.

Interrogators pressed her to confess, she said. "They pin a thousand charges on me. They force me: whatever we tell you, you have to write it down and sign it."

She said they beat her while she was blindfolded and cut her interrogation answers into a video presenting her as a terrorist. The charges put to her included espionage and receiving money from abroad. The confession footage was broadcast on Qazvin's provincial state television channel.

She also rejected the accusation of taking any money.

Her physical and mental condition is poor, the source told Iran International. Under the pressure of detention she has suffered seizures and lost consciousness several times, and was hospitalized before being returned to prison after a partial recovery.

In her message she also spoke of her mother in the town of Alvand, near Qazvin, who she said had been left with no one to care for her.

Iran's judiciary has issued sentences ranging from long prison terms to death against dozens of people this year on charges of espionage, sending information abroad or contact with hostile states, many of them arrested after the January protests.

Confessions broadcast on state television have repeatedly been described by defendants and their families as obtained under torture, and Revolutionary Court trials in such cases are closed to public scrutiny of the evidence.

Mizan, the judiciary's news agency, said prosecutors acted over what it called behavior that violated social norms and standards of propriety during Tehran Paris Tehran / Bridge, staged at Tehran's Book Garden, a cultural complex in the north of the city.

The play is directed by Saeed Dashti and written by Sina Shafiei and stars Fatemeh Masoudifar, Mehrdad Sedighian, Amir Jafari and Sina Saei.

The scene

The footage shows Masoudifar leaning her head toward Sedighian's chest as he appears to touch her head. Physical contact between unrelated men and women in public is policed in the Islamic Republic under religious rules the state enforces, and the stage has not been exempt.

Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, criticized the scene and said the larger problem was what it described as the gradual erosion of the boundaries governing artistic freedom and public conduct.

"It seems there is no supervision over theater stages," Fars wrote.

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Production blames camera angle

The company said on Saturday the controversy rested on a "misunderstanding" and that the video did not show the true distance between the actors.

The images were filmed at a tight angle on a spectator's phone, it said, which created a misleading impression. It added that it had changed the actors' positions on stage to avoid further misunderstanding.

The two characters in the scene are brother and sister, the production said, and the contact comes at a moment of crisis in the story.

Other artists face legal action

The case comes amid other recent judicial measures involving artists and public events over compliance with the Islamic Republic’s social and religious restrictions.

An appeals court in Qom on Friday upheld sentences against singer Parastoo Ahmadi and seven musicians and others involved in the “Caravanserai Concert.” Each was sentenced to 74 lashes, a two-year ban on audiovisual and musical activity and a two-year travel ban.

The case stemmed from a concert filmed at the historic caravanserai in Qom in December 2024 and later posted on YouTube. Ahmadi performed without the mandatory hijab alongside male musicians. The lower court said the performance and its online publication had violated public morality and religious and legal norms. The appeals court rejected the defendants’ challenge and made the ruling final.