Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani addresses a crowd in Yazd, November 10, 2019: “Anyone involved in corruption must be prosecuted.”

President Hassan Rouhani challenged Iran’s hardliners over corruption on Sunday, facing down hecklers amid a surge in regime in-fighting.

Speaking in Yazd in central Iran, Rouhani says his hardline opponents within the regime and their associates have embezzled billions of dollars, “Why is the corruption of big figures not dealt with? Taking a few [junior] people to court and making propaganda does not fool people”

He confronted the judiciary — headed by the conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who lost to Rouhani in the 2017 election — “Anyone involved in corruption must be prosecuted. There should be no talk of factions and parties in fighting corruption. I urge the judiciary to explain to people what has been done in fighting billion-dollar corruption.”

Rouhani has long challenged factions, including the Revolutionary Guards, of taking advantage of stakes in Iran’s economy. However, the in-fighting has intensified in recent months, with each side accusing the other of corruption.

Rouhani listed cases involving hardiners and challenged the judiciary to explain what has happened with Babak Zanjani, a billionaire who has been sentenced to death for taking $2.7 billion of the State’s oil revenue.

Zanjani, allegedly used by Rouhani’s predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to evade US sanctions, was condemned to death in March 2016 but the sentence has not been carried out.

“Who was responsible? Why are people not told about those [powerful figures] who had a role in this case?” Rouhani said. “This money belongs to people….The people will not be deceived by taking a few individuals to the court and making a fuss about them.”

He said “one organisation” has borrowed $947 million from the central bank but has not paid back the funds: “These cases I mentioned today must be explained to people or else I’ll reveal them one by one in different provincial trips”.

Demonstrators challenged the statement, leading Rouhani to chide them, “The voice of these young men is not the voice of the people….[Do] not allow America’s demands be voiced by these individuals.”

Heckling as Rouhani calls on Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, the Central Bank, and the judiciary to provide explanations of alleged embezzlements

Prison Sentences and an Escalating Fight

Last month Rouhani’s brother and senior advisor, Hossein Fereydoun, was given a 5-year sentence and fined about $7.4 million for “receiving bribes”. Mehdi Jahangiri, the brother of 1st Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri and the head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, is free on bail on financial charges, and Mohammad Hadi Razavi, the son-in-law of Labor Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari, has been charged with embezzlement and “disruption of the economy” after allegedly failing to repay about $51 million in loans.

See Iran Daily, Oct 2: President Rouhani’s Brother Given 5-Year Prison Sentence

Iran has been mired in a series of corruption cases for more than a decade. Several top politicians in the Ahmadinejad Administration, from 2005 to 2013, have been imprisoned. They include 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, serving a five-year sentence, and Vice President Hamid Baghaei, handed a 63-year term in December 2017.

In early October, Abbas Iravani, the main shareholder of Ezam Automotive Parts, was charged with “corruption on Earth” for “disrupting the Islamic Republic economy”, “forming a gang for smuggling auto parts”, and “paying bribes” to customs officers. Among those allegedly bribed was the former chairman of Bank Melli, Mahmoud Reza Khavari, who fled to Canada after he was accused in 2011 of embezzling more than $700 million.