Bijan Zanganeh was accused in the Crescent case and went to court.
Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the oil minister in the governments of Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, is a defendant in the Crescent case.
Iran Newspaper, the government's media outlet, quoted Judiciary Spokesperson Masoud Setayshi as saying that Bijan Zanganeh, the former oil minister, is named as a defendant in the Crescent case and has appeared in court to answer the charges.
The Crescent contract has been one of the most controversial Iranian oil contracts in the past two decades, formed in 2001 during the government of Mohammad Khatami. Under the contract, Iran agreed to export up to hundreds of millions of cubic feet of gas per day to the United Arab Emirates after building a pipeline in an area in the Persian Gulf.
The former Iranian oil minister, who was one of the founders and staunch defenders of the agreement, has always been the target of criticism for the provisions of the "Crescent", especially the price set for gas exported to the UAE.
Siamak Namazi, an American citizen of Iranian descent, was the director of the strategic planning office of the Crescent Oil Company in Tehran when he was arrested in October 2015. Mr. Namazi has been imprisoned since then, and during this time, judicial authorities have not allowed him to take leave.
It is worth noting that in October 2017, the Emirati company Dana Gas announced that the international arbitration court had ruled in favor of Dana Gas in the lawsuit against the National Iranian Oil Company and fined the Iranian party $607.5 million.
Source: Voice of America
