Iran is to hold public trials in a string of multi-million dollar economic corruption cases involving senior officials and their offspring, the head of Tehran's Justice Department has said. The trials follow a call earlier this year by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a wholesale crackdown on rampant corruption. Abbasali Alizadeh told state television on Wednesday that 60 judicial cases involving economic corruption had been filed, and 40 dossiers were ready for court hearings. ''Investigations are in the final phases for the remaining 20 cases and trials will be held in public,'' the television quoted Alizadeh as saying.
Politically sensitive trials have often been held behind closed doors in Iran.
Alizadeh said that the amount of money involved in the cases investigated so far amounted to more than 480 billion rials (60 million), and that some 30 people were currently in custody. It was not immediately clear who the officials were or with which government departments they were connected. Iran's judiciary has repeatedly vowed to crack down on corruption after spending much of the past two years closing down major pro-reform publications and arresting dissident intellectuals.
Bureau Report