Iran billionaire sentenced to death for corruption

Iran’s billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption, a judicial official says, 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 says 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 offence 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 says, 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 oil ministry was that sanctions had prevented a planned transfer from taking place.

— AFP