TEHRAN — Iranian Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaeili announced on Tuesday that two of the defendants in corruption cases were sentenced to death.

The defendants, a husband and a wife, were involved in manipulating the foreign exchange and gold markets and hoarding cars from Siapa Company.
 
“In a case that had more than 50 defendants, more than 40 people were indicted and 34 defendants were convicted in the court,” Esmaeili said during a press conference.

“In this case, part of which was disruption of the foreign exchange market and another part was disruption of the auto industry and gold coin market; Vahid Behzadi, the son of Aboutaleb, and his wife Najva Lashidaee were sentenced to death for participating in disruption of the economic system through registering fake orders and an illegal exchange shop, and pre-purchasing more than 6,700 vehicles from Saipa Company and participating in money laundering amounting to 32,000 billion [rials],” he said.

The spokesman added that 24,000 Azadi gold coins and 100 kilograms of gold were found in their house.

Esmaeili also said former CEO of Saipa Mehdi Jamali was sentenced to seven years in prison; former deputy director of Saipa’s marketing Reza Taghizadeh to 15 years in prison; MP Mohammad Azizi to 61 months in prison; Fereydoon Ahmadi to 61 months in prison; and former head of Saipa’s security Hossein Hashtroodi to 61 months in prison.

MH/PA