{"id":6354,"date":"2019-03-14T15:52:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T12:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=6354"},"modified":"2019-03-14T15:52:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T12:52:47","slug":"the-biggest-embezzlement-in-irans-history-a-harsh-sentence-handed-down-to-lawyer-nasrin-sotoudeh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/iran-in-a-week\/the-biggest-embezzlement-in-irans-history-a-harsh-sentence-handed-down-to-lawyer-nasrin-sotoudeh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Embezzlement in Iran\u2019s History; A Harsh Sentence handed down to Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nThe main cause of promoting corruption in Iran<\/span><\/strong>
\nIn today\u2019s Iranian society, the main cause of promoting corruption and immorality is the government\u2019s interference in economic affairs. The editorial of Tejarat daily suggests that the main solution to this problem is to put an end to the government\u2019s interference in economic affairs and for it to respect individual freedom as well as the right of every individual to make their own choices.
\nAs a result of the government\u2019s interference and inefficient policies, Iranian companies and businesses have become polluted with corruption and the markets have become immoral. The current structure is producing rent-seeking, and the efforts to make the economy transparent are not fruitful as the state\u2019s economy cannot be reformed.
\nCorruption has impacted healthy businesses as well. When we talk about morality, we mean actions based on reason, without destroying the interests of others. It is only natural when people pursue their own happiness and maximize their own interests. But the truth is that personal and collective interests are tied together.
\nThe key to moral behavior is to maximize our own interests along with the interests of others and society. The redline of moral economic behavior, therefore, is the loss experienced by others and society. From this viewpoint, Iranian society is not on the right path. Morality has been buried in incorrect policies and by ignoring freedom.
\nThe editorial adds that in a structure where the market isn\u2019t working properly and prices are suppressed, the first thing to die is morality. Interfering in the market results in a violation of freedom, the right to choose, and individual property rights. The solution is to end the state\u2019s interference in economic affairs and for it to respect freedom and the right to choose. In a society which has a centralized economy, morality is marginalized.
\nTejarat \u2013 March 13<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran and America\u2019s political-security rivalry in Iraq<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe editorial of Arman Emrooz addresses the complexities within the relationship between Iran, Iraq and America and how the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani\u2019s recent trip can be significant in this regard.
\nHassan Rouhani\u2019s trip to Iraq aims to realize several main goals, and despite its considerable significance for trade between the two countries, it has political and even military implications as well. In view of the fact that 65% of Iraq\u2019s population are Shia and Iran has had a prominent role in suppressing ISIS since 2014, groups with ties to Iran like the Popular Mobilization Forces have gained power in Iraq.
\nThe editorial goes on to say that in the recent elections, however, a new group entered the domain of power in Iraq with its members mostly having studied in America and having a tendency towards the United States. The new ruling groups in Iraq are after two goals. One is to return to the Arab world, and the other is to promote relations with America. The United States has promised to make generous investments to reconstruct Iraq if its forces leave this country.
\nPolitically, the Iraqi Government will ask Iran to control those forces affiliated with it, which still have arms and enjoy political and military influence in Iraq. But it is not clear whether these forces will hand over their weapons and turn into a military party. It is tough for Iraq to have many sources of power in the country.
\nThe editorial adds that as for commerce, Iran has extensive trade with Iraq and is trying to preserve and expand it. But rivals like Turkey and Saudi Arabia have made it difficult for Iran to do so. Iraq\u2019s purchases from Iran can be easier. Nevertheless, recent remarks by an Iraqi authority indicates dissatisfaction with Iran\u2019s influence in Iraq, and he asked for it to decrease.
\nIraq has a defense contract with America, according to which the number of US military sites and bases will increase in Iraq. America doesn\u2019t want Iraq to get close to Iran, as was the case in the past. America\u2019s strategy in Iraq and Syria, therefore, is a new one, which aims to prevent Iran\u2019s influence from increasing in Iraq and Syria.
\nArman Emrooz \u2013 March 12<\/a><\/p>\n

The significance of Rouhani\u2019s trip to Baghdad<\/span><\/strong>
\nHassan Rouhani went to Iraq, heading a big economic and political delegation. This is Rouhani\u2019s first trip to Baghdad during his presidency. The editorial of Jahan Sanat Daily goes over the significance of this trip.
\nThis trip\u2019s first significance is related to the developments that \u2013 under the influence of Arab circles \u2013 have proved to disadvantage Iran. As the evidence indicates, Arab circles led by Riyadh do not agree with the influence of Iran in four key capitals in western Asia \u2013 Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut, and Aden \u2013 and see it as a key factor in conflicts and crisis in western Asia. As Baghdad is a part of the Arab world and it can act as a mediator in diplomatic relations for countries in western Asia, Rouhani\u2019s trip can provide the opportunity to solve Tehran\u2019s diplomatic crisis with Arab circles.
\nThe editorial goes on to say that this means that Iraq has an exceptionally suitable relationship with regional countries and can help in alleviating and resolving diplomatic disputes in the region. This trip, moreover, can be effective in resolving other crises in western Asia. With a meaningful approach to Baghdad, Tehran can use it to resolve the Syrian crisis.
\nThis trip can also have a message for Trump\u2019s administration which is trying to turn Iraq into a front for its rivalry with Iran. As such, the message of this trip for Trump\u2019s administration is that the Iraqi Government keeps its doors open to other countries including Iran, in order to provide common, mutual interests. It will not allow Iraq\u2019s soil to be used by a third country against Iran.
\nThe editorial adds that this trip is significant from an economic viewpoint as well. Washington has repeatedly tried to disrupt Tehran-Baghdad relations; nevertheless, the evidence shows that the economic relationship between the two countries still continues. Tehran and Baghdad have a joint relationship in the fields of oil, and gas as well as in banking and financial transactions. It is said that during the past 8 years, the commercial trade between Iran and Iraq has increased from $2 billion to $14 billion.
\nAs Baghdad is a key player in the region it will be damaged by Washington\u2019s sanctions against Tehran, it won\u2019t certainly give into US pressure, and Tehran can count on expanding trade relations with Iraq to sidestep the US sanctions.
\nJahan Sanat \u2013 March 11<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
\nEmbezzlement to save the \u2018Iranian establishment\u2019: \u201cBiggest scam in Iran\u2019s history\u201d<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nEconomic cases and putting defendants on trial in \u201cspecial courts\u201d is no longer something new in the Islamic Republic. Nevertheless, the last case of economic corruption — related to the Iranian Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC) — concerns embezzlement valued at 6.6-billion-euros, the biggest in the history of Iran.
\nThe embezzlement case against PCC has 14 defendants. According to the Islamic Republic\u2019s authorities, the defendants \u2013 under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u2019s presidency \u2013 had received \u201chuge amounts of money from foreign buyers,\u201d and, in the name of \u201ccircumventing sanctions,\u201d had converted it into Iranian currency before returning it to the government.
\nThe lead suspect Reza Hamzelou, a former director of PCC, has denied his charges, claiming that he had helped Iran\u2019s economy by what he did and should have been awarded for it.
\nThe 14 suspects in this case — called the biggest scam in Iran\u2019s history \u2013 have been charged with disrupting Iran\u2019s economy by mishandling 6.66 billion euros of foreign exchange obtained from exporting petrochemical products.
\nThree defendants, in this case, are residing abroad at present, so their trials are being held in absentia. Iran\u2019s judicial authorities say it has taken them five years to investigate this case.
\nThe Islamic Republic has repeatedly used individuals including Babak Zanjani and Reza Zarab to circumvent sanctions, yet these people were later accused of embezzlement and corruption by the Iranian establishment.
\nCorruption is interwoven in the texture of the Iranian state that some economists believe that the reason why certain embezzlement and economic corruption cases are disclosed is to distract public opinion from bigger and more extensive corruption that takes place.
\nBBC Persian<\/a>
\nVOA Persian<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawyer sentenced to 38 years in prison, 148 lashes;\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Khamenei\u2019s critic to copy 3 books by hand and 3 years in jail<\/span><\/strong>
\n\"\"
\nAlong with Ebrahim Raisi becoming the new chief of justice in Iran, the judiciary handed a cruel, and ridiculous sentence to prominent lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and to Khamenei\u2019s vocal critic Abolfazl Ghadayani.
\nNasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist, has been sentenced to 38 years in jail as well as 148 lashes, said her husband Reza Khandan, adding that the sentence was related to two cases. Khandan called the sentence \u201cshocking\u201d, emphasizing that his wife was only doing her job within the law and peacefully defended victims of human right violations.
\nSotoudeh was charged with \u201cassembly and collusion against national security\u201d, \u201cpropaganda activities against the establishment\u201d, \u201cmembership in the Defenders of Human Rights Center, the Legam campaign [against capital punishment] and the National Peace Council\u201d, \u201cencouraging people to corruption and prostitution as well as preparing the grounds for it,\u201d \u201cappearing without hijab in the judiciary,\u201d \u201cdisrupting public order\u201d and \u201cdisseminating falsehood to agitate the public mind.\u201d Human rights organizations throughout the world objected to this \u201cterrifying sentence\u201d against Sotoudeh, calling it a \u201cmockery of justice\u201d.
\nIn another case, an absurd, and childish sentence was given to Abolfazl Ghadayani, a political activist and an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic\u2019s Supreme Leader. Ghadayani was sentenced to 3 years in jail as well as to copying 3 books by hand.
\nGhadayani has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for \u201cinsulting the leader\u201d, and one year in prison for \u201cdisseminating propaganda against the establishment,\u201d according to his son, Morteza. This political activist was also sentenced to \u201cstudying and copying by hand\u201d three books, one of which is entitled \u201cKnowing the Enemy\u201d — a compilation of Ali Khamenei\u2019s statements in this regard.
\nGhadayani has repeatedly asserted Ali Khamenei is directly responsible for Iran\u2019s current political and economic problems. In his latest piece, Ghadayani wrote that the Islamic Republic\u2019s leader and its establishment cannot be reformed and the only way out of this \u201cdead-end\u201d is a \u201cunified resistance\u201d by all political trends.
\nHe had also previously said Iran\u2019s hurdles can be resolved only through dismissing Ali Khamenei from his position. Ghadyani co-founded the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Organization (MIRO) and was a supporter of the Islamic Republic\u2019s establishment until 2009. He was arrested and imprisoned for a year in 2009 in the wake of Iran\u2019s unrest during the presidential elections. He was once again sentenced to one year in jail and 40 lashes in 2012.
\nDeutsche Welle<\/a>
\nRadio Farda<\/a><\/p>\n

Supporters of Iran\u2019s establishment attack women protesting compulsory hijab<\/span><\/strong>
\n\"\"
\nAmnesty International says that the footage recently shared on social media shows that Iran\u2019s morality police and the supporters of Iran\u2019s establishment persecute and attack Iranian women on a daily basis.
\nThe footage shows that members of Iran\u2019s morality police or plainclothed agents are attacking women. These attacks take place in the name of defending \u201cpublic chastity\u201d, and the perpetrators even attack women who try to film them, in order to stop the release of the footage on social media.
\nAccording to Amnesty International, women in Iran are randomly stopped by the morality police and are insulted or threatened. The police force them to cover their hair thoroughly under their veils and coerce them to clean their make-up. Women are often attacked physically.
\nIn footage released recently, a woman was attacked by a plainclothed agent with pepper spray, and another footage shows a woman being threatened with a shocker. In another example, a woman\u2019s car was stopped by the morality police in one of Tehran\u2019s highways and, following a public scuffle with the police, a police agent threatened the people with his gun.
\nAccording to Iranian law, if women and girls above the age of 9 appear in public without hijab, they will face imprisonment from 10 days to two months, or they have to pay fine.
\nIn recent years, the objection against compulsory hijab in Iran has increased.
\nRadio Zamaneh<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran ranks 3rd in job discrimination against women<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nThe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), on the occasion of International Women\u2019s Day, announced the ranking of 120 countries according to their level of job discrimination against women.
\nBased on this report, Iran stands at 118 out of 120 countries, only to be followed by Pakistan and Yemen in job discrimination against women. The OECD announced that depriving women of equal job opportunities has resulted in a $6 trillion loss to the global economy.
\nIran\u2019s Statistics Center, in its latest study regarding the workforce in Iran, announced that of Iran\u2019s roughly 27 million active workforce, only 19.7% are women.
\nThe rate of unemployment of women with MA and PhD is higher than others. According to statistics, the rate of unemployment of women with MA and higher degrees has increased from 12% to 26% from 2008 to 2016.
\nThe women unemployment statistic in the provinces of Yazd, South Khorasan, Kerman, Isfahan, Ilam, Khorasan Razavi, Sistan and Baluchistan, Fars, Golestan, Mazandaran, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad is more than the average for most provinces at 32%. In Yazd and Kerman, it reaches to 52%.
\nIn Iran, based on law and common practices, women are not allowed to have certain jobs. They cannot be a president, judge, real estate agent, oil driller, work on ships or in the army, motorcycle couriers, fire department agents, or working in coffee shops.
\nKayhan London<\/a><\/p>\n

Khamenei awards highest military medal to Qassem Soleimani \u201cwishes martyrdom\u201d for him<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nThe Islamic Republic\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has given the highest military order to Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps\u2019 Quds Force while wishing him the death of a martyr.
\nIn a ceremony held in Soleimani\u2019s honor, Khamenei noted that Soleimani has repeatedly risked his life when confronting the enemy.
\nKhamenei wished Soleimani prosperity in life and martyrdom at the end. \u201cNot now, of course,\u201d stressed Khamenei, \u201cthe Islamic Republic still needs you for years to come.\u201d
\nDuring this ceremony in which a number of military commanders participated, Qassem Soleimani received the Order of Zolfaghar\u2014Iran\u2019s highest military honor\u2014from Ali Khamenei. He is the first commander to receive this medal since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
\nThe Order of Zolfaghar dates back to 96 years ago and was the most prestigious military medal during Iran\u2019s imperial era. 13 military commanders received this medal under the Shah, including General Fazlollah Zahedi, Iran\u2019s first prime minister after the 1953 coup.
\nQassem Soleimani, who was promoted to Brigadier General in 2010, is in charge of Iran\u2019s military operations abroad, including Iraq, Yemen, and Syria. His role in Iran\u2019s foreign policy became more significant after the conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
\nSoleimani\u2019s name is in the list of individuals sanctioned by the United States.
\nRadio Farda<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The main cause of promoting corruption in Iran In today\u2019s Iranian society, the main cause of promoting corruption and immorality is the government\u2019s interference in economic affairs. The editorial of Tejarat daily suggests that the main solution to this problem is to put an end to the government\u2019s interference in economic affairs and for it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-in-a-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6360,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354\/revisions\/6360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}