Investigation into Several Municipal Corruption Suspects in Military Prosecutor's Office

Simultaneously with the remarks of the head of Tehran City Council regarding the debt of the Foundation for the Cooperation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Tehran Municipality, the Tehran prosecutor announced that the case of several suspects in various municipal projects is under investigation in the military prosecutor's office. According to IRNA news agency, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, stated on Sunday, July 8, that the case of several Tehran municipal projects 'considering their suspects' is being examined in the military prosecutor's office. Mr. Jafari Dolatabadi did not provide further details about this case. A day prior to these remarks, Mohsen Hashemi, the head of Tehran City Council, reported that a financial corruption case involving 'Holding Yas', a company contracted with Tehran Municipality, is being pursued by order of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic by Hossein Baqeri, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran. He mentioned that five individuals, including Ebrahim Sharifi, the deputy of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the former mayor of Tehran, have been arrested, and some of them have been released on bail. On Sunday, Mr. Hashemi further explained his remarks, stating: 'There was a contract between the Foundation for the Cooperation of the IRGC and the municipality, and the municipality has claims from these companies. We request that these claims be collected so that pending construction projects can be resolved and completed.' According to Mr. Hashemi, from the municipality's perspective, 'Holding Yas' has a debt of about 4,500 billion tomans, but this company does not accept this debt amount. In 2014, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Tehran Municipality and 'Holding Yas', representing the Foundation for the Cooperation of the IRGC, for an amount of 20 trillion tomans for the execution of construction projects. Last year, some websites reported the arrest of Ebrahim Sharifi, the deputy of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf in Tehran Municipality, on charges of financial corruption, and Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, confirmed the arrest of Mr. Sharifi without providing details. Mohammad Ali Najafi, the then mayor of Tehran, on January 13, 2018, reported the status of the Tehran municipality, accusing the former mayor and managers of this institution of issues such as 'spending the municipality's budget on presidential elections', 'sudden hiring of 13,000 people on the eve of elections', 'betrayal in the employees' reserve fund', and 'arbitrary transfer of 674 properties'. Mr. Najafi also stated that the municipality intends to send reports of four or five instances of 'violations' during Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's mayoralty to the judiciary. However, a week later, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Tehran, criticized the publication of this report and announced that he had requested Mr. Najafi to 'immediately' provide his documents regarding this matter to this institution. The issuance of a non-prosecution order regarding the complaint against the Telegram case investigator. The Tehran prosecutor also described the complaint of several lawyers against the judge who issued the Telegram filtering order as 'lacking legal basis' and 'unfounded', announcing that a non-prosecution order had been issued for this judge. He added: 'Regarding the unfounded nature of such complaints, it should be noted that all defendants, for example, currency brokers, cannot file complaints against the case judge through any judicial action, as it lacks legal basis.' In May, seven lawyers filed a complaint against the investigator of the second branch of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office due to the filtering of the Telegram messaging app. Arash Kikhavsar, Abuzar Nasrollahi, Javad Parsa, Saeed Dehghan, Mohammad Moqimi, and Payam Darvishan, attended the government employees' crimes prosecutor's office to complain against the investigator of the second branch of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office for issuing the Telegram filtering order. The Tehran Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office, on Tuesday afternoon, May 10, issued an order to block the Telegram messaging app, requesting that 'the blocking should be implemented in such a way that the content of the mentioned network is not accessible in the country with any software (including VPNs and similar ones)'.