Ejei Reports the Arrest of 19 Members of the Tabriz City Council and Municipal Managers

On Tuesday, June 10, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, announced that 31 individuals are under investigation in the Tabriz City Council case, with arrest warrants issued for 19 of them, while the others are free on bail. According to Tasnim News Agency, Mr. Mohseni Ejei made these statements based on the remarks of the Tabriz prosecutor. In recent months, reports have emerged regarding the arrest of four members of the Tabriz City Council, one of the deputy mayors, and several mayors from various districts of the city. Hikmat Ali Mozaffari, the head of the East Azerbaijan judiciary, reported on April 19 that 10 contractors related to the case have also been interrogated, charged, and released on bail. Mr. Mozaffari previously stated in another interview with the Mizan news agency that 'one of the members of the Tabriz City Council had promised some municipal employees appointments to certain positions in exchange for bribes and had pursued their desired proposals through collusion.' Previously, Shahram Dabiri, the head of the Tabriz Islamic Council, stated, 'In fact, the main suspect in this case is one of the council's advisors, who has been accused of embezzlement, bribery, and financial corruption. However, three of the mentioned council members have also been summoned for questioning by the judiciary due to their connection with this individual and were later arrested.' Meanwhile, Masoud Pezeshkian, a representative from Tabriz in the parliament, criticized the treatment of Tabriz City Council members on May 29, stating that they are prohibited from meeting and cannot contact their lawyers. The spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary also announced on Tuesday that a verdict has been issued for Mohammad Jahromi, the former CEO of Bank Saderat, and over forty other defendants in the notorious 3,000 billion tomans embezzlement case. Mohseni Ejei, in response to a question about the verdict for the former CEO of Bank Saderat in the famous embezzlement case, stated that 'the verdict for this individual and over forty other defendants has been issued.' The spokesperson did not provide details about this verdict. Mr. Mohseni Ejei had previously reported in 2011 that during the investigation into the notorious 3,000 billion tomans embezzlement case, a criminal charge had been issued against the former CEO of Bank Saderat, and he would appear in court to address his charges. Following the media coverage of this embezzlement case, it became clear that Bank Saderat and Bank Melli Iran had opened credit documents worth hundreds of billions of tomans without receiving the full or at least a significant portion of the funds for these credit documents. Subsequently, Mohammad Jahromi, in a letter to the central bank's director, accused the bank of 'negligence' and wrote that given the flaws and vulnerabilities of the country's banking system, Bank Saderat could not detect this corruption. The central bank, while rejecting all criticisms raised in Mr. Jahromi's letter, identified Bank Saderat as the 'primary accused' in this financial corruption. In this case, Hamid Pourmohammadi, the deputy governor of the central bank during Ahmadinejad's administration, was arrested and later released. Mohammad Reza Khavari, the former CEO of Bank Melli and one of the defendants in this case, also fled Iran. Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the Minister of Justice and former head of the General Inspection Organization, stated on August 5 last year that Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the head of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office, played a 'significant role' in this case. Iranian media have referred to Eynollah Riahi, one of the defendants in this embezzlement case, as the nephew of Mr. Mashaei. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, also confirmed in November 2011 that he is related to Mr. Mashaei. Meh-Afarid Amir-Khosravi, the primary defendant in this case, was executed on June 3, 2014, in Evin Prison.