A recent batch of leaked documents from the servers of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) has shed light on the corruption in the regime’s legislative branch, including the astronomical salaries that members of the Majlis receive. These revelations have sparked a wave of social anger and disgust. The fear of the social consequences of this scandal has sparked a new crisis within the regime, and the ruling mafia gangs are in jeopardy. The regime’s propaganda machine is making frantic efforts to deny or downplay the leaked documents. However, their efforts have only exacerbated the outrage and hatred of the people.
The Majlis’s public relations department has taken the initiative to publish a manipulated list of salaries for the members of Majlis for April 2023, attempting to conceal the truth by obfuscating the payment details and total earnings of each representative. Nezameddin Mousavi, the spokesperson for the Majlis presidium, claimed “These numbers are not accurate, and the amount of representatives’ salaries is within the customary and legal limits… The payment to representatives is approximately 250 million rials.”
This is while according to the leaked documents, MPs are receiving around 2 billion rials per month.
However, these hasty denials and attempts to downplay this scandal have resulted in a wave of mockery from the public and have intensified the internal power struggles within the regime.
On February 15, the state-run Tabnak website referred to the track record of such scandals in the Majlis and wrote, ”Let the journalists investigate the salaries of the representatives to find out if the Majlis’s public relations statement is accurate or if the leaked documents and evidence are true.”
On February 13, Farhikhtegan newspaper published an article with the mocking title of “Mandatory Transparency of Baharestan’s Salaries and Benefits” and wrote, “Among the documents released by the hacking group, the report of representatives’ earnings can also be seen. Based on the figures in this report and the information that has previously been disclosed, the earnings of most Majlis members amount to nearly 2 billion rials.”
Following the exposure of corruption in the Majlis, regime authorities are afraid that even their own loyal forces will not participate in the upcoming elections.
On February 13, the state-run Farhikhtegan newspaper wrote, “Less than 20 days remain until the twelfth round of parliamentary elections, and it is clear that the goal of this attack and the publication of related documents is nothing but reducing public participation in the elections.” Farhikhtegan added, “If we look more closely at the dimensions of the issue, it is not the hackers who are causing such an incident; rather, it is the decision-makers who determine such astronomical salaries for the representatives of the nation. The same nation whose earnings of workers and employees are several times less than those of its representatives in Majlis.”
On February 14, Keyhan newspaper, which is known as the mouthpiece of regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei, referred to this issue with the phrase, “Smearing the elections by discrediting the Majlis,” and wrote, “Considering the disappearance of some former members of the Majlis and their associates, it is not far-fetched to think that their remnants have played a supportive and complementary role in the recent incident in various corners and sides of the parliamentary administrative system.”
Finally, the documents not only tarnish Majlis and the sham parliamentary elections, but they primarily target Khamenei himself, who has repeatedly praised this Majlis as a revolutionary one.
In a meeting with the members of the Majlis in May 2023, Khamenei said, “One of the privileges of the eleventh Majlis, which I insist on saying and expressing, is its simplicity of life…Many individuals in this Majlis exhibit aristocratic behavior and a dismissive attitude towards the people, either to a lesser extent or not at all.”