Mr. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei provided information on several questions on his Sunday press conference, which touched upon presidential election issues and corruption, inter alia.
He emphasized that the Judiciary would be constant as Northern Star in fighting corruption and would work with Banking and Fiscal Crime Court in detecting and uncovering hidden illicit activities; "those who entertain to circumvent the law should be warned for their criminal acts," he told the press, giving some examples of corruption in the banking system now well-publicized. "Sarmayeh Bank and Teachers Investment Fund are two examples of the case; in the latter case, investigations found that 31 people had exclusive access to a lump sum of $2.2bn, albeit illegally; 3 people had been arrested in relation to corruption and they had been briefed on their charges and now awaiting court process; they promised to the court that they would return the sums on their access by late April and early May 2017," Ejei said, lifting the lid from the hidden corruption which had yet been uncovered for the public.
Judiciary spokesperson also had passing references to dual-nationals which had stolen the headlines and is still an important story in the media especially in the election season; "Ministry of Intelligence had an extensive investigation of all cases of dual citizenships, returning with only two dual citizens who they believed had had no government positions; the majority, the report said, had only Green Cards, and upon hearing the Ministry's sensitivity, they have abandoned administrative work for acquiring citizenship of a foreign country," he said.
Ejei said that in the famous Telegram case of the arrest of channel administrators, "8 had been arrested; one of them received extension of the bail, and the other was released on the bail; 6 others are still under arrest," he told the press.
Asked about former President Ahmadinejad's threats that he would file a lawsuit against Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Attorney-General, who reportedly used abusive language in promising to address the case of the former president, Ejei said that the court had received no lawsuit related to the threats. He also rejected stories in the media about Ahmadinejad's claims that court had offered apologies on having wrongly charged Mr. Hamid Baghaei, one of his close associates and former aide and the current runner for presidency; "Mr. Baghaei's case is currently open and the court had not offered apologies of any sort," he said.
Ejei also said that only 'definite conviction in court' would disqualify the individual on candidacy; "many of the registered people have court cases, but it would not disqualify them on candidacy per se," he emphasized.
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