Iran's judiciary criticized over execution of Amir Mansoor Arya company's CEO
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 24
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The lawyer of Mahafarid Khosravi, the CEO of Amir Mansoor Arya Investment Company, claims that his client was executed without any notice.
Khosravi, who was the prime suspect in the famous 2011 $3-billion embezzlement case, was executed earlier on May 24.
Khosravi's lawyer, Gholam Ali Riahi said that there was no legal process carried out, adding that he wasn't even notified about his client's execution, Iran's ILNA news agency reported on May 24.
"I wasn't informed about Khosravi's execution," Riahi said, adding that according to the laws the lawyer should be informed before the execution.
The lawyer added that Khosravi's family were not informed about his execution either.
Khosravi was previously sentenced to death on charges of "corruption and disrupting the country's economic system."
The $3-billion embezzlement was a fraud involving the use of forged documents to obtain credit from Iranian state and private banks to purchase state-owned companies.
This bank fraud had been described as the biggest financial scam in the country's history.
The case raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran during the administration of the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
ILNA quoted Hossein Raghfar, an economic expert and professor at al-Zahra University in Tehran as saying the main culprits in the case including former vice-presidents were not even summoned to the trials.
14 Iranian banks were involved in the case including state-run Bank Saderat and Bank Melli.
Thirty-nine persons were accused of involvement in the case during the investigations, and several high-ranking officials including certain persons in judiciary, parliament and presidential administration were persecuted or arrested, according to the Iran's judiciary officials.
Alongside Khosravi three other defendants in the case were sentenced to death, including Khosravi's legal advisor Behdad Behzadi, financial solicitor Iraj Shoja, as well as head of the Ahvaz branch of Saderat Bank, Saeed Kiani Rezazadeh. Thus far only Khosravi has been executed.
