IRAN: HAMID BAGHERI DERMANI EXECUTED FOR ECONOMIC CORRUPTION
December 27, 2018: Hamid Bagheri Dermani, a businessman known by the State-run Iranian media as the "Sultan of Bitumen", was executed on 22 December 2018 on alleged economic corruption charges. According to ISNA, Hamid Bagheri Dermani had been charged with bribery and corruption. Refering to the Tehran Revolutionary Court, the report says that Mr. Bagheri Dermani was found, among others, guilty of forging documents to secure state-backed loans for the establishment of front companies which he used to procure more than 300,000 tons of bitumen - a substance used in making asphalt. - one of Iran's most profitable industries. Hamid Bagheri Dermiani's case was initially processed by the newly established anti-corruption court but later sent to the Revolutionary Court where he was charged with "spreading corruption on earth" and sentenced to death in October 2018. Iranian Supreme Court upheld Bargheri Dermani’s death sentence quickly after the verdict was issued. (Sources: Iran Human Rights, 22/12/2018)
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