Attorney General: Judicial Order for Sheikh Al-Islami's Extradition to Interpol Issued

In the ongoing news regarding the petrochemical corruption case, the Attorney General of the Islamic Republic announced on Wednesday that a judicial order has been issued to return one of the defendants in this case from Canada. According to the news agency Mizan, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri stated, "A judicial order has been issued and communicated to Interpol, and we expect them to cooperate." This announcement was made in response to a question about the "possibility of returning Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami." In the indictment related to Reza Hamzelou, the primary defendant in this case, Ms. Sheikh Al-Islami is identified as his "main partner" who participated with him in establishing several companies in Turkey. In the hearings of this case, three defendants who are outside Iran are not present, but according to the Tehran prosecutor, "their lawyers" are present in the court sessions. Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami is one of these three defendants, but the Attorney General of Iran did not mention any efforts to extradite the other two defendants. On Wednesday, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri also made a statement that could imply that the extradition of Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami will not be easy. He said, "The problem we have with Interpol and the police abroad, especially in countries that are hostile to us." Meanwhile, some members of the "Iranian Canadian Community" have collected signatures in a petition published on the website of the Iran-Canada Congress, a non-profit and non-partisan social organization, calling for "immediate investigations" into Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami and Mahmoud Reza Khavari. This petition, which had collected over 11,000 signatures at the time of this report, is addressed to three high-ranking officials in the Canadian government, including the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada. Mahmoud Reza Khavari is one of the defendants in the case known as the three thousand billion embezzlement case, who fled to Canada before his arrest and conviction. The Attorney General of the Islamic Republic on Wednesday described Canada as a "haven for embezzlers" and said, "We expect the judicial and police authorities of Canada not to allow their country's image in the world to be so tarnished." The judge at the end of the second session of this court, which focused on the charges against Mr. Hamzelou, stated that in the third session of the court, the primary defendant will explain his connection with Ms. Sheikh Al-Islami. In the case known as "petrochemical corruption," which has held two court sessions so far, charges have been brought against 14 individuals, including several managers of the petrochemical trading company.