The Ongoing Saga of Babak Zanjani's Money

The newspaper Shahrvand has assessed the statements made by the head of the judiciary on Tuesday as a "sharp response from Amoli Larijani to Hassan Rouhani," noting that "less than a week after Hassan Rouhani's implicit criticism of the lengthy handling of cases in the judiciary at a government oversight and inspection conference, Sadegh Larijani reacted sharply to the government and raised unprecedented criticisms about the government and even the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Babak Zanjani case." The newspaper recalled that Hassan Rouhani, by posing the question, "Why, despite so many oversight bodies in the country, are we still witnessing major violations, and how can a massive violation of about 3 billion dollars occur in the previous government?" stated, "If one person can take this amount alone, either our oversight laws are flawed or the individuals responsible for oversight are problematic. How is it possible that oil and the country's assets are in the hands of one person and facilities and money are easily provided to them?" He also mentioned that "although the judiciary has addressed this issue and reached a verdict, the people's question remains, and they want to know where that money is and who assisted that individual?" According to the Shahrvand newspaper, Sadegh Larijani, in response to Hassan Rouhani's remarks, stated: "Firstly, in addition to the verdict issued regarding this individual (Babak Zanjani), individuals related to this case, from former ministers to the former head of the Central Bank, have repeatedly been summoned to the judiciary and have been investigated for hours, and this case remains open, and no one has said that these ministers or others have been acquitted or exempted from prosecution. Neither have the behind-the-scenes cases of Babak Zanjani been closed, nor do we intend to stop addressing them, but the primary goal is to return the people's money. We have nothing to hide, but it is implied that the judiciary is covering up." The newspaper also reported that the head of the judiciary stated: "We have preserved the dignity of some individuals; because Mr. Babak Zanjani has said many things that we have withheld for the sake of the reputation of some, as accusations have also been made. Babak Zanjani claimed that he donated billions of tomans to the presidential election; we do not consider his statements to be entirely true, and he talks a lot and makes many claims; otherwise, if we wanted to address it, we would have to summon all those who were mentioned in court." The newspaper Etemad also reported on its front page on Tuesday, "The saga of Babak Zanjani's money continues," stating: "The head of the judiciary criticized some statements regarding the Babak Zanjani case, deeming them as propaganda and emphasized that we have not made some of Babak Zanjani's claims public to preserve dignity and prevent the creation of disputes and to uphold the law." According to this newspaper, the head of the judiciary pointed out that "Babak Zanjani was arrested in 2013, and in 2015, the president responded to a letter from the Minister of Intelligence, suggesting that it would be good for the case to be handed over to the Ministry of Intelligence." He said: "I referred this letter to the prosecutor two or three days later and emphasized that it was a good suggestion and should be implemented; however, it later became clear that there were obstacles that were not related to the judiciary but stemmed from certain ministries and individuals." He added, "During 2013 and 2014, more than 30 or 40 joint meetings were held between the prosecutor, the deputy minister of intelligence, the IRGC intelligence organization, and the Central Bank, and they continuously monitored the issues; how can they claim that there was no cooperation?" The newspaper Vatan-e-Emruz, close to the Front of Steadfastness, described Sadegh Larijani's statements on Tuesday as "remarkable and shocking details about the Babak Zanjani case," stating that the head of the judiciary referred to some of Zanjani's confessions, the obstacles encountered in returning Zanjani's debts to the country, and the lack of cooperation from the Central Bank and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in tracing Babak Zanjani's accounts, stating: "For the judiciary, returning Babak Zanjani's debts is a priority, followed by the peripheral issues and Zanjani's side confessions." The newspaper Javan, close to the IRGC, also welcomed the head of the judiciary's statements against the president on its front page, stating: "It was expected that the head of the judiciary would once and for all provide a clear response to those who consider themselves complainants and claimants in the Babak Zanjani case." This newspaper emphasized that "Babak Zanjani has, in a way, become a scapegoat for the government; whenever a crisis like recession, unemployment, or the issue of astronomical salaries and the betrayal of the US in the JCPOA tightens the government's throat, suddenly the voice of Babak is heard, while this same Babak has claimed in his trials to have contributed several billion tomans to the election campaign of the current president." The Javan newspaper also stressed that "the Babak Zanjani case is a complex case, and for the judiciary, the people, and of course for the government, the most important thing is the return of nearly 3 billion dollars of public assets, but the political exploitation of this individual and bringing him into play at critical moments desired by the government has compelled the head of the judiciary to reveal part of the behind-the-scenes of this case and threaten that if the claimants wish, he is ready to summon and interrogate all those mentioned in court, even to arrest them, to clarify the matter." The newspaper Shargh reported in a piece titled "The Minister of Culture in Front of Alamolhoda," about the meeting of Reza Salehi Amiri, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, with Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, stating: "This meeting is likely not unrelated to the differences of opinion between the representative of the Supreme Leader and the Ministry regarding concerts and the reactions to them. From the minister's remarks and Alamolhoda's direct and indirect responses, this issue can be understood." According to this newspaper, the Minister of Culture, who visited Alamolhoda to explain the program of Mashhad, the cultural capital of the Islamic world in 2017, told the Friday prayer leader: "We believe that dialogue is easier and better for resolving issues than dragging matters into the media," and "our request is that after hearing something from the Ministry of Culture, it should be communicated to us before being announced from the podium so that if we have no response to that ambiguity, it can be publicly announced from the podiums." Reza Salehi Amiri emphasized that "the people are good evaluators and selectors," stating: "Some cinematic productions are promoted by these networks without the knowledge of the work's owner; meanwhile, the films they promote are among our least selling works, while we have cinematic works that have reached sales of nearly 8 billion tomans without advertising." Shargh quoted Ahmad Alamolhoda as saying: "The cultural-artistic programs of Mashhad 2017 must be conducted based on the fatwa of the Supreme Leader, not based on what I say. We are receiving news of attempts to create disturbances for the cultural-artistic programs of Mashhad 2017, which are likely planned by individuals outside the country." Alamolhoda also stated that "in a televised debate, it was said that someone claimed that the entire parliament is a sedition, which referred to me; however, I had said that there is sedition in the parliament." He also mentioned that "there is no strictness in Mashhad, and 20 music schools operate under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, but the issue of concerts is due to the disturbances surrounding it; do you prefer that there be immorality in the city of Imam Reza?" According to the newspaper Shargh, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad told Reza Salehi Amiri that "you are the custodian of the Ministry of Culture and Guidance that the world wants to overthrow," and "you provide reports to the president, and the president takes a public stance, and some people become upset by what is said; I have a website, and you should not take my words from the media, because sometimes an atmosphere is created." The newspaper Arman reported on the escalation of internal disputes within the National Trust Party, quoting Mohammad Sadegh Javadihazar, a member of the party's central council, stating that following the correspondence of Rasul Montajebnia with Mehdi Karroubi, who is under house arrest, and the resignation letter of Mehdi Karroubi from the secretary-generalship of the National Trust Party, this time Rasul Montajebnia has "closed all offices and branches of the central council until further notice." According to this newspaper, the reason for the dispute between the central council and the deputy secretary-general of the National Trust Party is the efforts that "were made to exaggerate the internal disputes within the National Trust Party" with other reformist parties, and "it seems that the perspective of Rasul Montajebnia and some members of the Tehran party is in clear contradiction with the central council of the National Trust Party, based on which Montajebnia could not remain in the position of deputy secretary-general of the party." The newspaper Iran reported that Zahra Ayatollahi, head of the Cultural and Social Council of Women, stated: "Our grandmothers married at 13; why shouldn't our daughters marry early?" According to this newspaper, Zahra Ayatollahi, referring to the decrease in "the age of sexual maturity," stated: "Social reality shows that our grandparents married at a young age, many of them were 14 or 15 years old, had good marriages, and families supported them, and gradually they should enter their shared life, and today this trend should also be implemented in our society," because "today the responsibilities of family life for our daughters are much less than those of daughters two generations before us. Now we see that life is in a small apartment, they have vacuum cleaners, cooking is not very hard, and managing the house is not very difficult, and the family visits that used to happen all at once with 20 to 30 family members from the husband's side are no longer like that, and responsibilities have become more limited." In response to the question that "there are two thousand widowed children in the country," she stated: "I accept that some marriages of girls under 15 to 18 years are unsuccessful, but are all marriages of girls over 20 to 30 years successful?" The newspaper Iran recalled that "recently at a seminar on child marriage, it was mentioned that there are 43,000 marriages of girls aged 10 to 15 in the country," and "this number includes 2,000 girls and boys who have either separated from their spouses or have become widowed," and following these statistics, "some representatives of the tenth parliament are seeking to gain the approval of clerics to amend Article 1041 of the Civil Code regarding the age of marriage so that only the father's permission and age condition are not considered." Emanullah Gharaei Moghaddam, a sociologist, has described "child marriage" as a "completely wrong decision," stating to the newspaper Iran: "Girls who are forced to marry at a young age, because they have not been able to properly spend their childhood and adolescence, gradually develop mental and psychological illnesses, many of them also get involved in divorce. Our studies on divorce also show that individuals who marry at a young age get divorced sooner." This newspaper also reported that Fatemeh Zolghadr, a member of parliament, recently emphasized at a seminar on child marriage the "necessity of reforming the law regarding child marriage," stating: "In some cases, girls under the guise of marriage are sold, and the law does not prevent this issue. The parliament will prioritize the reform of this law to prevent such marriages with a suitable plan." The newspaper Jahan San'at has examined the contradictory statements of Ali Rabiei, the Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, stating: "While the Minister of Labor previously reported the entry of five people every minute into the job market, he recently announced the entry of 14 new applicants into the job market every minute." This newspaper, noting that "the only interpretation of the minister's statements indicates the depth of the disaster and crisis of unemployment," wrote that "if, according to Rabiei, 14 people are searching for jobs every minute and the number of unemployed increases, then every hour 840 people, every day 20,160 people, every week 141,120 people, every month 604,800 people, and in summary, every year we will have 7,257,600 job seekers in the country." The newspaper Hamdeli reported on its front page on Tuesday, "Attributing House Arrest to Hassan Rouhani," stating that Jawad Abtahi, a representative of Khomeini Shahr, in a "new claim," said: "In 2009, at Rouhani's order as the head of the Supreme National Security Council, the leaders of the sedition were placed under house arrest, and today all welfare and recreational facilities are available for the leaders of the sedition; they eat and sleep. The conditions provided for the leaders of the sedition are not available to me as a member of parliament." The Hamdeli newspaper also reported that Hassan Rouhani's office issued a statement denying Abtahi's remarks.