TEHRAN: Iran’s judiciary said Tuesday that it commuted a death sentence for a tycoon to 20 years in prison after he returned around $2.1 billion in assets from illegally selling oil abroad, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Babak Zanjani, 48, was sentenced to death in 2016 over a number of charges, including money laundering, forgery and fraud that disrupted the country’s economy.
IRNA quoted judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir as saying that an appeal for amnesty by Zanjani was reviewed and his death sentence was “commuted to a 20-year prison term after approval by the Supreme Leader.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on all state matters and occasionally issues pardons.
Jahangir said as part of Zanjani’s 2016 sentence, he had the right to an amnesty or commutation of his death sentence if he returned the assets, compensated for damages and expressed regret for wrongdoing. The spokesman said that Zanjani cooperated with the judiciary to locate the assets abroad in recent years while he was in prison, and all the money was returned.
Zanjani was arrested in 2013 shortly after the election of then President Hassan Rouhani as part of a crackdown on alleged corruption during the rule of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Authorities said then that Zanjani owed more than 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) for oil sales he made on behalf of Ahmadinejad’s government. Zanjani was one of Iran’s wealthiest businessmen, with a fortune worth an estimated $14 billion.
The commutation of Zanjani’s sentence indicates that Iran’s government is in need of revenue after years of US sanctions on the country.
In 2018, then President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal with Iran that had aimed to lift sanctions on Iran in return for the capping of the country’s nuclear activities. Since then, Iran has found it difficult to sell its crude, the country’s main source of foreign revenue. After Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the deal, Iran’s rial currency tumbled.
In 2014, Iran executed another billionaire businessman, Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, for a $2.6 billion state bank scam in Iran.

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia has claimed responsibility for four strikes on international commercial and navy ships in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, including one on a ship destined for Oman.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said on Tuesday that their armed forces launched a number of explosive-laden drones at two US Navy warships in the Red Sea and targeted the MSC Orion commercial ship with drones in the Indian Ocean, which they claimed was related to Israel.

The MSC Orion is a container ship flying the Portuguese flag and traveling from Portugal’s Sines port to Oman’s Salalah port, according to websites that provide information on ship whereabouts and identities.

Oman is one of few nations to host Houthi officials, and its delegations have visited Houthi-controlled Sanaa to push for peace in Yemen.

The Houthis said they also targeted the Cyclades commercial ship for reaching the Israeli Eilat port on April 21, violating earlier instructions to ships in the Red Sea not to go to Israel.

Since November, more than 100 ships sailing in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and Gulf of Aden have been attacked by hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis in support of the Palestinian people against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

The Houthi assaults have prompted the US to organize an alliance of naval task forces and start airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

The US Central Command said in a statement that the Houthis fired on Monday three anti-ship ballistic missiles and three drones from areas under their control at the MV Cyclades, which it said is owned by Greece and sails under the flag of Malta, with no reported damage to the ship.

Also on Monday, US CENTCOM forces destroyed one airborne unmanned aerial vehicle launched by the Houthis against the US Navy ships USS Philippine Sea and USS Laboon in the Red Sea.

“There were no injuries or damages reported by US, coalition, or merchant vessels. It was determined the UAV presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region,” US CENTCOM said.

The EU military operation in the Red Sea, known as the Eunavfor Aspides Operation, said its Fasan frigate shot down one drone on Monday while guarding a commercial ship in the Red Sea from multiple attacks from Houthi-controlled regions of Yemen.

Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council, accused the Houthis on Tuesday of not being serious about achieving peace in Yemen and of using the UN-brokered truce to regroup and prepare to restart the war.

In a meeting of Yemen’s military officials in the central city of Marib, Al-Alimi vowed that the Yemeni government would drive the Houthis from the areas under their control, including Sanaa, and thwart their attempts to restart the conflict.

“The Houthi militia has shown that it is not a genuine partner in peacemaking, but rather views peace talks as a kind of deceit and preparation for fresh conflicts,” Al-Alimi said, according to the official news agency SABA.

Hostilities in Yemen’s flashpoints have generally abated since April 2022, when the UN-brokered ceasefire went into effect. The Yemeni government, however, said that the Houthis continue to wage lethal assaults on its troops in Marib, Dhale, Taiz, and other locations, and to mobilize personnel and military equipment outside of contested towns.

Meanwhile, six Yemeni troops were killed and 11 injured on Monday after an improvised explosive device placed by Al-Qaeda militants blew up their vehicle in the Moudia district in the southern province of Abyan.

The targeted troops were members of a military unit allied to the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council, which has been fighting Al-Qaeda in Abyan and Shabwa for months.