Justice Minister: Babak Zanjani's Cooperation Will Affect His Sentence

Mostafa PourMohammadi, Iran's Minister of Justice, stated that "Babak Zanjani's cooperation will influence his sentence." On Tuesday, March 9, in an interview with the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Mr. PourMohammadi emphasized: "Talking, giving slogans, and providing account numbers means a new type of fraud." The Minister of Justice stressed: "Whenever we see the money in our bank account, we will say that he {Babak Zanjani} has cooperated." Babak Zanjani is a billionaire who helped the Islamic Republic circumvent international sanctions against Iran. However, he was arrested in January 2014. Iranian judicial and government officials stated that Mr. Zanjani has not returned billions of dollars from oil sales to the treasury. Babak Zanjani claims that due to banking sanctions, he has been unable to transfer this money into Iran. The spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary announced this week that Mr. Zanjani and two other defendants have been sentenced to death for the charge of "corruption on earth." However, the head of the parliamentary committee following Babak Zanjani's case stated that with Zanjani's execution, "influential individuals" and "the hands behind the scenes" in this case will be "forgotten." The Minister of Justice of Iran has now said: "If he cooperates, it will affect his sentence, but so far we have not seen him cooperate." In this context, the Ministry of Oil has announced that preparations for selling Mr. Zanjani's assets have begun. A member of parliament stated that Zanjani's court did not address the cases of 12 Ahmadinejad-era managers.