Babak Zanjani's Lawyer: A Foreign State-Owned Bank is Ready to Pay Bail for Zanjani

Resool Koohpaiee Zadeh, Babak Zanjani's lawyer, states that a "100% state-owned foreign bank" has expressed readiness in a letter to the Central Bank of Iran to pay the bail amount if Zanjani's detention order is converted to bail. In an interview with Tasnim News Agency, Koohpaiee Zadeh explained that this letter was sent to the Central Bank and not the judiciary because the bank could not directly communicate with the judiciary, hence it requested the Central Bank to inform the judicial authorities. He mentioned that due to legal and international issues, the bank cannot backtrack on its commitment and its action in sending this letter is serious. The Central Bank reportedly responded that this matter does not concern it and that the bank should contact the "Ministry of Oil". The name of this "100% state-owned foreign bank" has not been disclosed. Koohpaiee Zadeh had previously mentioned the readiness of foreign partners to pay Zanjani's bail. In July, one day after the judiciary spokesperson's comments regarding the non-payment of Zanjani's 10 trillion tomans bail, he announced that foreign partners had expressed readiness to deposit the bail in rials. Currently, regarding those "foreign partners", he stated that they came to Tehran for discussions with Iranian judicial officials but ultimately, "except for one competent authority with high legal standing, no one was willing to meet with them". Babak Zanjani was arrested in January 2014 following a complaint from the Iranian Ministry of Oil. The Iranian Oil Minister claims Zanjani owes the government approximately 10 trillion tomans. The prosecutor's office states that out of the 2.7 billion euros Zanjani was supposed to pay to the oil company, "160 million euros were paid, and the rest was spent on personal matters". There are also reports that Zanjani was among those who helped the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad government circumvent extensive sanctions against Iran. He has been convicted of the charge known as "corruption on earth" and sentenced to death. Zanjani's case has currently been sent to the Supreme Judicial Council.