Iran’s judiciary has announced that Hamid Baghai, who was the executive assistant to former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was arrested on Monday June 8.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesman for the judiciary, said Baghai had charges against him and the investigator handling his case summoned him and then issued his arrest warrant. Mohseni Ejei did not indicate the nature of the charges against Baghai.
Baghai served in a succession of posts: the head of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, the secretary of the High Council of Free Economic Zones and finally as the Executive Assistant to the president during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s terms.
When the Rohani administration took over in 2013, financial fraud charges were brought against a number of top officials in the Ahmadinejad administration.
Last summer, the “secret” list of the central bank’s Collection Committee was published on the internet, revealing that former vice president Mohammadreza Rahimi, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff, and Hamid Baghai respectively owed 1.4 billion, 8.9 billion and 3.1 billion toumans to the Central Bank.
Baghai is also on the founding committee of the Iranian International University recently established by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and he is accused by a number of MPs of illegally transfering 16 billion toumans to the university coffers, a charge he has denied.
