Prominent Iranian cultural and civil activists in Iran have issued a letter denouncing the hanging of Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, the prime suspect in the $3-billion fraud, as ordered by the Iranian judiciary.
Babak Ahmadi, Simin Behbehani, Jafar Panahi, Alireza Jabbari, Fariborz Raisdana, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Asghar Farhadi, Nargess Mohammadi, Farideh Moradkhani, Esmail Moftizadeh, Mohammad Maleki and Mohammad Nourizadeh have issued a letter as aprt of the Step-by-Step to End Death Penalty Campaign, in which the signatories maintain that the hanging of Khosravi was “selective.”
In a letter published on the campaign’s Facebook page, the activists say that “the continued judicial crackdown”, “the death penalty” and “the heavy prison terms” for financial and administrative crimes are a cause of “anger and disappointment among the public.”
The letter stresses that actions such as the execution of Amir Khosravi “cannot resolve the multifaceted and fundamental problem of corruption in the country” and the activists urge the establishment to “destroy the roots of corruption in society.”
The letter also points to the large network of corruption that, according to Amir Khosravi’s testimony, included his collaborators and supporters, adding that most of these connections have remained immune from any criminal prosecution.
Many top figures in the Islamic Republic establishment were linked to this financial fraud, which was dubbed “The Great Embezzlement”, in which money was secured from banks through fraudulent letters of credit. Among them were several members of Parliament and the CEO of the country’s largest bank, Melli Bank, who escaped Iran and is now residing in Canada.
