- Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman, and two accomplices were given a capital punishment by an Islamic Court
- Zanjani is known in Iran for his prominent role in helping the government in Tehran escape oil sanctions
- The transactions made by Zanjani accumulated him a fortune of $ 10 billion, along with debts of a similar scale
TEHRAN, Iran – A billionaire businessman has been sentenced to death by the Islamic court in Iran.
Jon Dean mentioned in his article for The Mirror published on March 6 that Babak Zanjani and two accomplices were given a capital punishment by an Islamic Court, the judiciary said on Sunday.
Zanjani is known in Iran for his prominent role in helping the government in Tehran escape oil sanctions.
Zanjani and his two accomplices were convicted of embezzlement and “spreading corruption on Earth,” which is a capital offence in the Islamic court.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on live television that the court ordered the trio to repay funds embezzled from, and among others, state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
Photo Credit: The Mirror
An article by Arthur MacMillan for Yahoo News published on March 6 said that the ruling is not yet final and the defendants can appeal against the ruling.
“The court of first instance … sentenced the three defendants to death,” Ejei said while in a weekly news conference.
“The three were also ordered to pay a fine equivalent to one fourth of the sums they had laundered,” he added.
As reflected in his own accounts, Zanjani had arranged billions of dollars of oil deals through a network of companies stretching from Turkey to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates for years.
BBC News mentioned in an article published on March 6 that prosecutors accused Zanjani of owing the government more than $ 2.7 billion for oil sold on behalf of the oil ministry.
The transactions made by Zanjani accumulated him a fortune of $ 10 billion, along with debts of a similar scale.
In December 2013, at the time of his arrest, a judicial spokesman said: “he received funds from certain bodies … and received oil and other shipments and now has not returned the funds.”
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