Raisi's Legal Deputy Calls for Condemnation of Defendants in 'Karsanat' Case

Ibrahim Raisi's legal deputy has urged the judiciary to condemn the CEO of the 'Karsanat' company, his son, and his assistant due to corruption and mismanagement in the case. Mohammad Dehghan criticized the ongoing 'Karsanat' case after 20 years, highlighting the Islamic Republic's inability to compensate for the losses and 'lost profits' resulting from this contract. He added that the delay and lack of seriousness regarding this case during Hassan Rouhani's administration led to a ruling against Iran and the National Iranian Oil Company. The 'Karsanat' contract was established in 2001 during Mohammad Khatami's presidency, in which Iran agreed to export up to hundreds of millions of cubic feet of gas daily to the United Arab Emirates after constructing a pipeline in the Persian Gulf region. In October 2021, the Emirati company 'Dana Gas' announced that an international arbitration court ruled in favor of 'Dana Gas' in its lawsuit against the National Iranian Oil Company, imposing a fine of over $607 million on the Iranian side. Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen, was the director of strategic planning at the 'Karsanat' oil company in Tehran and was arrested in October 2015. A year later, a judiciary-affiliated news agency announced that a 10-year prison sentence was issued for him and also for his father, Mohammad Baqer Namazi. Subsequently, on May 25, 2022, the government-affiliated newspaper Iran reported that Bijan Zanganeh, the oil minister of the previous administration, was named as a defendant in the Karsanat case and appeared in court to respond to the charges. Earlier, on October 6, 2021, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly stated that the 'stubbornness' and 'political maneuvering' of Hassan Rouhani and Bijan Zanganeh caused significant damage to the country in this case, claiming that Zanganeh's position as minister during Rouhani's administration was the reason for the ruling by the Hague arbitration court against Iran. According to him, 'The Islamic Republic claimed that bribery occurred in this case,' but the Hague court stated that if bribery had occurred, why had the person responsible at the time of the contract been appointed minister again? This member of parliament also reported on Ali Shamkhani's collaboration with the defendants in the 'Karsanat' case, alleging that in 2013, he invited 15 members of parliament to the National Security Council and told them they 'did not have the right' to comment on this case. The Fars news agency also claimed that 'Khatami's government could have canceled the contract when Karsanat was unable to provide the $40 million guarantee for the contract or revised the pricing formula, but it did not.' Bijan Zanganeh was accused in the Karsanat case and went to court. Reactions to Iran's condemnation in the Karsanat case continued; members of parliament were told they had no right to 'comment.'