Nobakht: Rouhani's Government Has Submitted Documents of Baqaei's Violations to the Judiciary

Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, referring to the arrest of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's executive deputy, stated that Hassan Rouhani's government has provided documents of violations by Hamid Baqaei and other members of the previous administration to the judiciary. According to the IRNA news agency, the spokesperson for Rouhani's government, who attended a meeting with journalists on Tuesday, June 9, expressed: "There are accusations against Mr. Baqaei, and let the judiciary inform about it, but the government has legally referred these documents to the judiciary." He mentioned that the current government, upon starting its work, became aware of "some legal violations" that occurred in the previous administration, and now "it is the judicial authority that can confirm whether the previous government's actions were illegal or not." The arrest of Hamid Baqaei, the former head of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization and a close associate of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took place on Tuesday, which was announced by the judiciary spokesperson on the same day, although his charges remained unmentioned. However, since the beginning of Hassan Rouhani's government, reports have emerged regarding Hamid Baqaei's performance as a cabinet member under Ahmadinejad, accusing him of financial violations. For instance, Akbar Turkan, the head of the Supreme Council of Free Trade Zones of Iran, accused Mr. Baqaei on May 29, 2014, of leasing "three government buildings at a very low rate to an institution under his supervision." Mr. Turkan had previously revealed Baqaei's action of transferring 16 billion tomans from the government account to the Iranian University account, which belongs to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, although it was later announced that this money was returned to the government account. Hamid Baqaei is the second deputy of Ahmadinejad to be arrested in recent months, following Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who was sentenced to five years in prison for financial corruption. According to Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, Hassan Rouhani's government has pursued the "violations of the previous government" through legal channels without seeking media attention. He emphasized that the legal deputy of the presidency has filed all these cases in the judicial authority.