Disagreement Between Two Legal Experts on the Activity of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Coin and Currency

The Chief Justice of Tehran Province states that the head of the judiciary has ordered the establishment of a special branch to pursue cases related to the coin and currency market. According to Gholamhossein Esmaeili, directives have been issued to law enforcement, the Central Bank, and various sectors regarding this matter. He adds that the police have arrested several suspects following the orders of judicial authorities of the special prosecutor's office. The Chief Justice of Tehran Province also mentioned that cases related to the coin and currency market have been filed in the courts, but no indictments have been issued yet. Reactions among legal experts in Iran to this action by the judiciary are not uniform. Nemat Ahmadi, a lawyer and legal expert in Tehran, welcomes the consideration of a special prosecutor's office for investigating coin and currency cases. However, Qasem Shole Saadi, another legal expert in Tehran, believes that establishing a special prosecutor's office for these matters is unconstitutional. There is no disagreement between Shole Saadi and Ahmadi regarding the consequences of violations in currency purchases and the need to address the issue; the main disagreement lies in the priorities of how to approach the issue. In another part of his response, Nemat Ahmadi specifies the preferred approach and explains why there should be a distinction between handling coin purchases and currency purchases. Just hours before the news of the order from Sadeq Amoli Larijani, the head of the judiciary, for the establishment of a special prosecutor's office was published, Masoud Pezeshkian, the Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, also announced the formation of a team in the Economic Corruption Combat Headquarters to investigate how government currency is allocated. Now, Qasem Shole Saadi, a representative from the third and fourth terms of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, states that the main solution for dealing with offenders is neither in the hands of the police nor the prosecutor's office. According to him, the solution lies in a fundamental reconsideration of the overarching policies of the system. Following the recent instability in the Iranian currency market, the government allocated government currency to several companies – a special currency for imports at a rate of 4200 tomans per dollar. Meanwhile, the price of currency in the free market first exceeded 5000 tomans, then went beyond 8000 tomans, and finally approached 9000 tomans. Following government actions, reports of 'violations' by some companies receiving currency were published. The situation escalated to the point where Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, requested a detailed report from President Hassan Rouhani regarding this case. The latest chapter in this ongoing story is the prediction of a special prosecutor's office to pursue cases related to the coin and currency market.