Justice: Iran overturns death sentence against business mogul

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Justice
Iran lifts death sentence against business mogul

His case is one of the biggest corruption scandals in recent history in Iran: Babak Sanjani. photo

© Hemat Khahi/dpa

Instead of the death penalty imposed in 2016, Babak Sanjani now faces 20 years in prison. The 50-year-old is said to have embezzled the equivalent of around 2.5 billion euros through illegal oil trading.

Iran Justice has overturned a death sentence against a well-known business mogul after around eight years. As the Iranian news agency Isna reported, citing judicial spokesman Asghar Jahangir, the death penalty imposed on entrepreneur Babak Sanjani in 2016 has been overturned. Instead, the 50-year-old now faces 20 years in prison. It was initially unclear whether the years he had already served in prison would be taken into account.

The Sanjani case is one of the biggest corruption scandals in recent history in Iran. During the presidency of the hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he and his accomplices embezzled the equivalent of around 2.5 billion euros through illegal oil trading. According to media reports, Sanjani had in recent years paid back both the damage caused and a quarter of the sum to the state as a penalty. According to the justice spokesman, this also led to the death sentence being revised.

After Ahmadinejad’s term in office, intensive investigations against several corrupt groups began under the conservative-moderate President Hassan Rouhani in 2013. Ruhani said at the time that people had a right to information. Members of the Ahmadinejad administration were also targeted by investigators. Sanjani was also arrested in the course of the investigation.

dpa

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