Wealthy Financial Corruption Suspects Released Easily; Workers Remain in Detention
While prominent government officials accused in financial violation cases easily secure bail set by courts and gain release, some defendants in political and ideological cases are unable to pay their bail deposits, and even when they do manage to provide them, courts reject them to keep them imprisoned.
Parviz Kazemi, welfare and social security minister under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration and former chairman of Bank Sarmayeh’s board of directors, was released on Monday, Bahman 15th, on a 10 billion toman bail despite serious charges of “participating in major disruption to the country’s economic system through disruption of the monetary and banking system and participating in 41 counts of breach of trust” related to Bank Sarmayeh.
Among other prominent defendants are Hamid Baqaei, Ahmadinejad’s deputy in the tenth administration, and Hossein Fereydoun, Hassan Rouhani’s brother and advisor in the eleventh administration, each of whom was released during temporary detention with bail amounts of 20 and 35 billion tomans respectively. Hossein Fereydoun’s bail was secured by Hassan Ghazi Zadeh Hashemi, the minister of health at that time.
This contrasts with bail determinations for cases where defendants include protesting workers, writers, and students, which creates difficulties for these individuals and ultimately keeps them imprisoned.
For example, the court set a 300 million toman bail for Parvin Mohammadi, vice-chair of the Workers’ Union, an amount that is not easy for a worker to provide. Mohammadi had been unemployed for a long time and in recent years has been engaged in reporting on pressures faced by workers.
Other examples include bail amounts of 400 and 200 million tomans set for Ismail Bakhshi and Ali Nejati, other labor activists, a 400 million toman bail for Asal Mohammadi, a student activist, and bail amounts of one billion tomans for members of the Writers’ Association.
Meanwhile, some low-income defendants have been unable to pay their bail and have remained in prison. The court has made no changes to bail conditions; this includes Davoud Rafiee and two other labor activists who two years ago could not afford 30 and 50 million toman bail amounts, or Saeid Nemati, a cognitively disabled citizen from Khuzestan whose family could not afford a 300 million toman bail.
The Judiciary creates obstacles for some defendants who manage to secure the required bail with great difficulty, keeping them imprisoned. For example, in the case of environmental activists, under the pretext that their crimes are security-related, these individuals have been kept in prison despite being ready to pay bail.
Source: Voice of America
