Iran court sentences former vice president to 5 years in prison News
Iran court sentences former vice president to 5 years in prison

[JURIST] The Iran Supreme Court sentenced former vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi to more than five years in prison and imposed a fine of 10 billion rials (USD $360,000), the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) [official website] reported [IRNA report] Wednesday. Rahimi was also ordered to return 28.5 billion rials worth of goods. This sentence is the result of an appeal brought after an initial sentence to 15 years in prison, but the specific charges were not mentioned. Rahimi was vice president under Mahmud Ahmadinejad [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], who was criticized for corruption while serving as Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013. Rahimi was indicted last March in connection with a billion-dollar embezzlement scheme [Reuters report], and Iranian media reported he was convicted in September for corruption [RFE/RL report].

Corruption continues to be a problem throughout the world. Anti-corruption advocates on Wednesday criticized [JURIST report] the Turkish Parliament, whose members voted down a proposal to lift immunity for four former ministers accused of corruption. Last month Zhou Yongkang [BBC profile], former head of China’s homeland security, was arrested and expelled [JURIST report] from the Communist Party after being accused of accepting bribes, exploiting his power to enrich family members and leaking state secrets. Also last month the Egyptian prosecutor general announced he will appeal [JURIST report] the Egyptian court’s decision to drop charges against former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak [JURIST news archive], who was being charged with corruption and complicity in the killing of more than 100 protesters during the country’s 2011 uprising. In 2012 Iran sentenced [JURIST report] four men to death in connection with the financial scandal of former president Ahmadinejad’s government.