Hassan Rouhani to Amoli Larijani: The Judiciary Must Be Accountable to Public Opinion

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, one day after the Judiciary Chief's harsh attacks on his government, urged the judiciary to be "accountable to public opinion" to "increase public trust" and added that "the interests of the people cannot be protected through deflection and mismanagement." On Tuesday, January 4, Hassan Rouhani, speaking to members of the Parliament's Program and Budget Commission, referred to the case of Babak Zanjani, an Iranian billionaire, stating: "In the case of Babak Zanjani and his associates, approximately 2.7 billion dollars of public funds have been embezzled – which has now accrued interest to exceed 3.5 billion dollars – it is the right of the people to know who made decisions regarding this vast amount of public wealth and how this huge sum of money came to be in the hands of one individual and where this wealth is now?" According to the official news agency of the Islamic Republic, IRNA, he stated: "Increasing public trust and social capital in the country requires cooperation from all branches and institutions. The interests of the people cannot be protected through deflection and mismanagement, and each agency must act within its powers and responsibilities and respond to public opinion." These remarks were a reaction to the statements made by the Judiciary Chief on Monday, who claimed that "Babak Zanjani financially supported Hassan Rouhani's campaign in the 2013 presidential election," and that individuals "related" to this matter would be summoned and possibly arrested if necessary. Sadegh Amoli Larijani also clarified regarding the conflict between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Judiciary over the Babak Zanjani case, stating that Hassan Rouhani had requested last year for this case to be pursued by the Ministry of Intelligence, and he had instructed the Tehran prosecutor to implement this suggestion, but "it was later revealed that there were obstacles to this work, and these obstacles were not from the Judiciary." Meanwhile, Hassan Rouhani had stated on December 29 in a speech that he had requested the Judiciary to hand over the Babak Zanjani case to the Ministry of Intelligence, but this request was not fulfilled. In another part of his remarks on Tuesday, he emphasized that "since the beginning of the government, the Ministry of Oil has been a complainant and has been pursuing the collection of these claims, and the Ministry of Intelligence has been following the case," stressing: "The government's position has always been that for the completion of the case investigation, the accused should be in the custody of the Ministry of Intelligence so that with all the information obtained, necessary follow-ups could be made in all aspects, and the ground for swift and decisive judicial action could be provided." He stated: "The Judiciary also bears a very heavy responsibility in this regard and must be accountable." Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the spokesman for the eleventh government, implicitly denied the claim of Babak Zanjani's financial support to Hassan Rouhani's campaign during a press conference on Tuesday and called on the Judiciary to "address every claim" made by Babak Zanjani and announce the results. Babak Zanjani, who had very close ties with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, is accused of failing to return approximately 2.7 billion dollars from oil sales to the government, which Iranian officials state has now reached 3.5 billion dollars with interest. The latest statistics from Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, Iran's Minister of Oil, indicate that this imprisoned accused has only paid "two thousand billion tomans" of his 3.5 billion dollar debt.