Disappearance of 17 Economic Corruption Cases in the Ninth Parliament

Hassan Norouzi, the representative of Robat Karim, said in an interview with the state newspaper Iran, published on Saturday, June 22, that "there is constant talk of economic prosperity in the Parliament, but there is no plan to tackle the economic corruption that has challenged the country, and an example of this is the 17 missing economic corruption cases in the Ninth Parliament." This member of the Parliament, who was part of the Article 90 Commission in the Eighth Parliament, stated that in 2010, multiple cases related to financial and administrative corruption were raised in the Article 90 Commission, some of which were closed, while 17 cases remained in the commission at the end of the Parliament's term to be addressed in the next Parliament. According to this representative, these 17 cases should either have been resolved or still be pending in the Parliament, while there is no trace of these cases, and the report of the Article 90 Commission of the Ninth Parliament, which reviews the status of the cases, shows no sign of them. Ehsan Mehrabi, a journalist in Berlin, commented on the possibility of a case going missing in Parliament, stating that as long as a case has not entered the Parliament's computer system, it can disappear. Fereydoun Khavand, a university professor and economic expert in Paris, also discussed the prevalence of economic corruption in the Islamic Republic and the factors contributing to this corruption. Hassan Norouzi, in response to the question from the Iran newspaper about whether he is sure of the existence of these cases in the Article 90 Commission, stated that he personally wrote and signed the reports of the cases. When asked if the violations in these cases were evident, he replied that the violations were clear, and if referred to the judiciary, the accused would certainly be convicted. For example, one significant case involved the sale of land on Kish Island, where lands priced at 4-5 million tomans per square meter were sold for 40,000 tomans per square meter. Another case involved the registration of a company on Kish Island, where an audit revealed extensive violations and waste of public resources. Additionally, there were cases related to the Tourism Bank. Meanwhile, several major corruption cases, such as the 3,000 billion toman corruption case of Meh-Afarid Amir-Khosravi, the 123 billion toman embezzlement in Bank Saderat, and the embezzlement case of Shahram Jazayeri, have been referred to the judiciary, and the accused in these cases have been convicted.