TEHRAN: Iran’s billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption, a judicial official said Sunday, after a long trial in which he was accused of fraudulently pocketing $2.8 billion.
Zanjani became notorious during the era of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, finding ways to channel hard currency from oil sales to Tehran despite financial sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic’s banks as punishment for its nuclear program.
The 41-year-old was convicted of fraud and economic crimes and as well as facing the death penalty he must repay money to the state, judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie said at his weekly press conference.
The trial was held in public, a rarity for such a major case in Iran, and two other accused were also convicted of “corruption on earth,” the most serious offense under the country’s criminal code, meaning they too will face the death penalty.
“The preliminary court has sentenced these three defendants to be executed, as well as paying restitution to the plaintiff,” Mohseni-Ejeie said, adding that that was the Oil Ministry.
They must also pay a “fine equal to one fourth of the money that was laundered,” the spokesman said, without specifying the sum.
Zanjani, who can appeal, had denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the only reason the money had not been paid to the ministry was that sanctions had prevented a planned transfer from taking place.
Iran to hang corruption-tainted billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani
Iran to hang corruption-tainted billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani
Israel decided to kill Khamenei in November, defense minister says
- “The prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) set the goal of eliminating Khamenei,” Katz told Israel’s N12 TV news
- The timing was set for mid-2026
JERUSALEM: Israel took the decision to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in November and was planning to carry out the operation around six months later, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.
Khamenei was killed in the first hours of the US-Israeli air campaign that began on Saturday in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike.
The joint air assault is nearing the end of its first week after opening salvos killed the country’s leaders and set off a regional war, with Iranian attacks in Israel, the Gulf and Iraq, and Israeli attacks against Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Already in November we were convened with the prime minister in a very tight forum and the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) set the goal of eliminating Khamenei,” Katz told Israel’s N12 TV news. The timing was set for mid-2026, he said.
The plan was eventually shared with the Washington and brought forward around January after protests broke out Iran, when Israel was concerned its pressured clerical rulers might launch an attack against Israel and US assets in the Middle East, Katz said.
Israel has said its aim is to eliminate the existential threat it sees in Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile project, and to bring about regime change. Iran’s rulers have so far shown no sign of relinquishing power.
