Iran court jails ex-ministers over role in massive corruption case
Two ministers who served under a former Iranian administration have been sentenced to prison after they were found guilty of a role in a massive corruption case that involved misusing public funds worth over $3 billion.
Verdicts issued by the First Branch of Tehran’s Islamic Revolution Court on Tuesday showed that former agriculture minister Kazem Sadatinejad and former trade minister Reza Fatemi Amin had been given jail sentences of two years and one year, respectively, over role in a 2023 tea smuggling scandal, know in the Iranian media as the Debsh Tea Case.
The court said that the two former ministers had initially received five-year jail sentences, but they were reduced based on the existing laws and regulations.
The sentences cannot be suspended, although the convicts can appeal them.
It is the first time since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 that senior cabinet ministers have been imprisoned for corruption.
Sadatinejad and Fatemi Amin had been charged for complicity in the tea smuggling case by failing to prevent economic disruption in Iran and by keeping silent on the approval of applications for excessive tea imports into the country.
Dozens of other suspects in the case, including CEO of the Debsh Group Akbar Rahimi, received jail sentences of between six months and 25 years.
The case covers dubious financial dealings carried out by the Debsh Group and its associates from 2019 to 2022, leading to the misuse of some $3.37 billion in US currency that the company received at a lower rate to import high-quality tea and machinery into Iran.
Investigations into the case show that Debsh sold nearly half of the currency on the open market to collect Iranian rial at a much better rate. Other convictions in the case include labeling poor-quality tea as superior-quality tea imported from India and bringing back less expensive Iranian tea to keep the difference in foreign currency.
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Iran court jails ex-ministers over role in massive corruption case
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