Lawyer of the First Defendant in Petrochemical Case: Defendants Helped the System to Benefit the Country

During the third session of the court hearing regarding the "corruption in petrochemicals" case, the first defendant and his lawyer provided explanations about the details of the case. This court session was held on Wednesday, April 21, in Tehran, presided over by Judge Asadollah Masoudi. Reza Hamzehloo, the former CEO of the Petrochemical Trading Company, is the first defendant in this case, alongside Abbas Samimi, a board member of the Petrochemical Trading Company and CEO of Iran Investment Company, who is also among the defendants in the "petrochemical corruption" case. According to the judge, the amount of money allegedly acquired by Reza Hamzehloo stated in the indictment is "7 million, 605 thousand, and 529 euros, which is equivalent to 8 million, 710 thousand, and 384 dollars." According to ISNA news agency, during this session, Reza Hamzehloo's lawyer stated: "Hamzehloo and Samimi were helping the system to benefit the country." He explained: "Mr. Hamzehloo and his associates had no goal other than serving the system and had no alternative. These friends deposited all the foreign currency obtained from sales into their companies' accounts. If they were merchants, they could have taken all this amount." The defense lawyer continued: "NPC (National Petrochemical Company) has stated that there is no foreign currency debt and that accounts have been settled." He made this statement while the National Petrochemical Company of Iran announced on March 22 in an official statement that the Petrochemical Trading Company has "not returned 500 million euros of claims" from producers related to exports in 2013. The National Petrochemical Company also stated that the defendants, in addition to not returning this "500 million euros," received part of the petrochemical export money in euros and returned it to rials at a lower rate. In the Wednesday session, after the defense lawyer of Reza Hamzehloo reported on the "settlement" of accounts by the Petrochemical Trading Company, the legal representative of the National Petrochemical Company responded: "They did not settle our debts on time." Reza Hamzehloo and his defense lawyer opposed and rejected these accusations during the session, citing details and figures. In the case known as "petrochemical corruption," which has so far held two court sessions, accusations have been raised against 14 individuals, including several managers of the Petrochemical Trading Company. In the hearings of this case, three defendants who are outside of Iran are not present, but according to the Tehran prosecutor, their lawyers are present in the court sessions. It is unclear whether the lawyers of the three absent defendants were appointed by them or are court-appointed. In this case, Reza Hamzehloo is accused of establishing several companies in Turkey as a business partner with Marjan Sheikh-al-Islami and instructing some other individuals to establish companies outside of Iran to circumvent sanctions. Marjan Sheikh-al-Islami, who has a background in journalism with the Hamdeli newspaper and IRNA news agency, has served as the CEO of the Cultural Heritage News Agency and has run for parliamentary elections twice, denies these accusations.