Hassan Rouhani's brother convicted on corruption charges
Hossein Fereydoun was sentenced to five years in jail for "receiving bribes," "money laundering" and the possession of "dirty money."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFIranian President Hassan Rouhani's sister and brother at his second inauguration(photo credit: MAHMOOD HOSSEINI/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's brother Hossein Fereydoun was sentenced to five years in jail for "receiving bribes," "money laundering" and the possession of "dirty money," stated a judiciary spokesman on Tuesday, according to Radio Farda.Fereydoun will also have to pay a fine and return 310 billion rials (about $7.4 million at the government's official exchange rate).According to the spokesman, the sentence is the final verdict issued by the Court of Appeal that reduced the jail sentence from seven years to five."Fereydoun has offered effective consultations to those seeking high positions in Iranian banks and other financial and economic institutions and received hundreds of billions of rials from those individuals," reported the Iranian Fars news agency.Fereydoun was originally arrested in June 2018, but was freed on bail shortly after. He is involved in another case which has not gone before a judge yet, but the judiciary neglected to elaborate on the details of the other case, according to Fars.Rouhani's brother is only one of many corruption cases involving well-connected individuals who are related to state officials, according to Radio Farda.Until Iran's recent economic troubles, few high-profile individuals were arrested and prosecuted for corruption. In mid-2018, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered law enforcement and the Judiciary not to tolerate corruption.Rouhani and Iranian reformists have questioned the "political motive" behind recent arrests and trials.
