A Tehran court has found Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian guilty of fraud after he registered someone else's invention in his own name, Press TV reported.
The verdict came after plaintiff Farzad Salimi filed a complaint against former municipality officials Mehrabian and Mousa Mazloum over the dishonest registration of an invention dubbed "Safe Room for Earthquakes" in their names.
According to documents provided by the plaintiff, the project proposal was put forward to Tehran municipality in 2003.
However, the project did not receive much attention from the then municipality officials in Tehran and Salimi was referred to other research institutes by the authorities.
The then municipality officials, Mehrabian and Mazloum, later registered the project -- obtained from Salimi -- in their own names and proceeded further by publishing a book on the subject, titled the Safe Room.
Following the complaint, the general court of Tehran convicted the two officials of fraud and ordered the disputed invention to be registered in Farzad Salimi's name.
A safe room or a panic room is a fortified room within a residence. The room aims to provide a safe hiding place for the inhabitants in the event of a threat, such as an earthquake, a tornado or a break-in.