TEHRAN: An Iranian court docket has sentenced two former ministers to jail over a multi-billion-dollar corruption case involving imported tea, the judiciary mentioned Tuesday.
The case, recognized in Iran because the Debsh Tea Scandal, was opened in 2023 and implicated greater than 60 folks, involving a complete of $3.7 billion, the Iran newspaper reported in Could, citing the nation’s chief justice.
Forty-two defendants have been sentenced within the case, together with former agriculture minister Javad Sadatinejad and former business minister Reza Fatemi Amin, mentioned Mizan On-line, the judiciary’s information outlet.
Sadatinejad obtained a one-year sentence, whereas Fatemi Amin was handed two years for his or her roles within the scandal, Mizan reported.
The pair, who served beneath late president Ebrahim Raisi, have been convicted of complicity in disrupting the nation’s financial system, with the sentences deemed “ultimate and binding”.
The court docket additionally sentenced Akbar Rahimi-Darabad, the chief govt of Debsh Tea firm, to 66 years in jail for varied crimes, together with disrupting Iran’s economic system, smuggling international forex and bribery.
Rahimi-Darabad was ordered to repay over $2.38 billion in smuggled funds and a high-quality of $1.5 billion.
Beneath Iranian regulation, jail sentences run concurrently, that means Rahimi-Darabad would serve 25 years for the longest of his convictions.
In April 2023, lawmakers impeached Fatemi Amin over hovering automotive costs.
That very same month, Sadatinejad was sacked from his place. In Could 2024, he was sentenced to 3 years on one other corruption case involving animal feed imports.