Mahmoud Sadeghi: Inspectors of the Judiciary's Accounts Arrested

Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, states that several "inspectors" from the General Inspection Organization, who were "randomly" reviewing several deposit accounts of the Iranian judiciary, have been arrested. He accused the judiciary of using the profits from these accounts for the "housing and benefits of its judges." Sadeghi, who first raised this issue, also mentioned that besides these inspectors, several employees from the central branch of Bank Melli, who had become suspicious of the "large amounts" in these accounts, were also arrested by the judiciary. According to this representative, during his questioning of Minister of Economy Karbasian on Sunday, August 5, it was revealed that these arrests occurred in 2016, and the accounts contained approximately "200 billion tomans," which appears to be the "profit" from their deposits. Sadeghi first brought up the issue of the judiciary's deposit accounts in 2016, and despite the responses from the then-Minister of Economy, he was not satisfied and after the appointment of the Minister of Economy in the twelfth government, his question was again placed on the agenda of the Economic Commission. His questions during this time have included inquiries about the specific "legal and religious basis" for these accounts, their number, the amounts deposited into them, the profits generated, and their uses. Sadeghi called on the judiciary to publish a report on the "expenditure" of the accounts in question and added that the lack of transparency in the relations between governmental institutions and the people has led to a "gap" between the people and the government and a lack of trust in the government reaching its "highest" level. On Sunday, Minister of Economy and Finance Masoud Karbasian responded to Sadeghi's questions, stating that there were 63 accounts that had been opened or closed between 2008 and 2016, and that there were always three or four accounts belonging to the judiciary active at any time, named after the head of the judiciary. He added that the Money and Credit Council, as the highest legal authority in the opening of bank accounts, deemed this action by the judiciary "legal," and the general assembly of Bank Melli and its auditors and inspectors also confirmed the legality of these activities. According to the Iranian Minister of Economy and Finance, since the revenues from these accounts were "trust funds" and not part of the government's revenues, there was no need to deposit them into the treasury, and therefore the opening of these accounts and earning profits from them was "legal." Meanwhile, Sadeghi called on Karbasian to publish a report on the "expenditure" of the accounts over the past years and added that many of the corruptions that occur in governments are with the permission and agreement of "these councils." He stated that the judiciary's actions constitute a form of "seizure of public property" and demanded an explanation regarding the legal and religious basis for their opening. He claimed that the judiciary spends the profits from these accounts on "housing and benefits for judges" and that despite the religious emphasis on the sanctity of people's property, illegal seizures of public property occur "in the name of Islam and in the name of the Supreme Leader." According to a radio report from today's session of the Iranian parliament, Sadeghi's remarks faced protests from principlist representatives, specifically Abdolhamid Khodari, the representative of Bushehr, and Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar, the representative of Bahar and Kaboudar Ahang, which led to tensions. Following this tension, and a reminder from Masoud Pezeshkian, the deputy speaker of the parliament, to Sadeghi about the "incorrectness" of questioning the integrity of the "system," Sadeghi stated, "My goal was not to insult the judges. My goal is to observe what is halal and haram in the judiciary." He posed the question: "Can a judge who consumes public property fight against corruption? If the judiciary needs a budget, it should be provided by the parliament, not from the people's property." Due to the tension in the public session and the responses from the Minister of Economy to Sadeghi, whom he described as "lacking authority," he stated that he would not put this issue to a vote in the public session, but due to the necessity of transparency, the parliament has the right to investigate this matter. Sadeghi's statements led to Abolfazl Abutalebi, a member of the "Councils and Interior Affairs" commission in the parliament, to file a complaint against him with the supervisory board on the behavior of representatives. The Iranian judiciary and Sadegh Larijani himself deny any "violations" and "abuses" in this regard in response to Sadeghi's repeated criticisms of these accounts. Mahmoud Sadeghi had previously been summoned to the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office for raising these questions about the judiciary and was released after securing bail. Some of the judiciary's accounts were opened in 1995, a year after Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the then head of the judiciary, requested the Supreme Leader's approval for their establishment.