Iran Sentences 8 To Public Flogging For ‘Economic Misconduct’

Iran’s judiciary announced in a September 5 press conference that eight men and women were sentenced to prison and lashes for “economic misconduct”.

Judiciary Spokesperson Zabihullah Khodaeian said in comments carried by the state-run ISNA News Agency that eight directors in the case of the Petrochemical Trading Company were tried and sentenced to flogging, prison, and fines.

He said the CEO of the Petrochemical Trading Company Reza Hamzeh Lu, Assistant CEO Abbas Samimi, Board of Directors member Alireza Alaei Rahmani, and Mostafa Tehrani, Commercial Director Mohsen Ahmadian, and the CEO of Deniz Company were each sentenced to 20 years of prison, 74 lashes, a permanent ban on government services and financial penalty matching the amount they earned through criminal activities for “participating in major interferences in the economic system by disrupting the distribution of currencies from the export of petrochemical products of manufacturing companies amounting to 6 billion and 656 million euros”.

Sam Hamed Saedian and Abolfazl Maleki Shams Abadi, two other CEO’s were also sentenced to 15 years of prison 74 lashes in public, and fines.

“These rulings are final and irrevocable, except through retrials and the application of Article 477,” Khodaeian added.

In July 2018, following the public flogging of another man in Khorasan Razavi Province, Amnesty International condemned the cruel punishment in a statement.

“The use of cruel and inhuman punishments such as flogging, amputation, and blinding are an appalling assault on human dignity and violate the absolute prohibition on torture and other degrading treatment or punishment under international law,” Amnesty’s Philip Luther said.

“As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is legally obliged to forbid torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment. It’s simply unacceptable that the Iranian authorities continue to allow such punishments and to justify them in the name of protecting religious morals.”

Source: Eurasia Review

Also Read: Three More Iranian Human Rights Attorneys Slapped with Unjust Prison Sentences

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