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Why the repetitious and bilious theater of fighting corruption in Iran?

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

 

Iran, May 25, 2019 – The Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani, who has a Ramadan feast with a new group of the mullahs’ elements with different titles every night, is attempting to garner new excuses for the country’s economic and political miseries.

In parallel fashion, Ebrahim Raisi, the newly appointed chief justice, also gives a speech for a different group of people every day, preaching about reforming the justice system and its current laws, decreasing the time to the trial period, decreasing the quantity of incarcerated individuals, especially reiterating his efforts in fighting corruption.

Raisi is the same mullah who was on the “death panel” in the summer of 1988, condemning more than 30,000 political prisoners to death, most of whom were members of the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Many of these victims were already convicted and serving their prison sentences. Others had served their time and the regime had refused to release them.

On May 22, the Iranian state-run channel one television reported with much fanfare about a meeting Raisi had with a group of reporters; needless to say, that all who attended work for state-run outlets.

During the staged session, the reporters, while alluding to the corrupt power structure of the regime, attempted to portray an image as if everything will be undergoing change.

Mohammadi, from Asriran website, said: “In the justice system when a judge breaks the law, will you shut down [the whole] justice system? In cases of bank fraud, do you shut down the bank? Yet when someone does something wrong in a newspaper, the whole newspaper is shut down.”

State-run channel one’s reporter continued: “Handling economic corruption was also repeatedly brought up in the chief justice’s meeting with reporters, and Ebrahim Raisi reassured them there is no red line in fighting economic corruption. In various cases where there are powerful people behind them, we as the media are threatened at times. In a variety of ways, it starts with bribery and ends with threats.”

Hamid Rasaee, close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s camp and editor-in-chief of the 9-day weekly, said that it does not help “if you can’t fight the big fish, or the public opinion doesn’t see that.”

Raisi replied: “There is no difference between the big fish and the small ones. We need to fight the small fish, too. Should we forgo the small fish because of the big ones? Not at all! We will fight both the small fish and the big fish.”

Part of the anti-corruption theater directed by Raisi is a highly publicized letter signed by 2,800 individuals described as “revolutionaries” and “lovers and supporters of the Islamic Republic.”

The state-run channel two television network reported last Wednesday: “Fighting corruption and justice makes big decisions necessary. In their letter to the chief justice, 2,800 [Revolutionary Guards] Basiji and revolutionary raised their issues regarding fighting corruption, economic rent, and justice.”

As a reminder, the U.S State Department recently designated the IRGC as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO).

In the letter, which sounds for the most part like a silly essay of dos and don’ts, the actual concern of the ruling mullahs is revealed when it reads:

“If the arms of the corrupt and those who exploit public assets are not cut, and if the monopolists who seek the maximum for themselves are not boycotted, investors, manufacturers, and employees, all of them will feel unsafe and disillusioned, and some will be encouraged to use illegal means.”

The corruption fight theater in Iran is so ridiculous that even some state-run media don’t take it seriously.

Hamdeli Daily newspaper published an article titled, “The beast of embezzlement has still both a head and a tail,” describing how repetitious and fruitless this scenario is.

“Due to its continuous replay in the past 30 years, the follow up by justice authorities and the eventual publication of its quantity and quality in the media, it appears that embezzlement in Iran is extenuated and has become business as usual for the people,” the article reads.

The article goes on to rhetorically asks:

“Why is this beast is not beheaded? And why can’t they even cut off its tail?”

In a prompt response, the daily responds: “Economic corruption has become an integral part of the [regime’s] management.”

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