Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, Religion

IRAN: Corruption Scandal Could Become a “Gladiator’s Game”

Omid Memarian*

NEW YORK, Jun 13 2008 (IPS) - An Iranian official who accused more than 40 high-ranking officials and grand ayatollahs of financial corruption in a speech to a student group early last month in the city of Hamadan was arrested in Tehran Wednesday.

Abbas Palizdar had reportedly made similar charges at previous university appearances, but when a video of his latest speech was put on the Internet, it quickly stirred a major storm in Iranian political circles and abroad.

Now Palizdar is charged with slander and “dissemination of false accusations”, as well as fraud for an unpaid bank loan of more than 6 million dollars that he took out some 16 years ago.

In his 50-minute talk, Palizdar claimed to be working with a parliamentary investigative committee and said that he has evidence backing up the accusations. He also strongly defended President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who himself has regularly complained about a powerful “economic mafia” and “financial corruption” since coming to office in 2005, although he has always refused to name names.

“Ever since the [1979] revolution, these types of accusations have been made among active political factions – sometimes they increase,” Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a political analyst and former editor of reformist newspapers, wryly told IPS. “An impartial and independent spectator might imagine that the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are one of three groups: thieves and embezzlers, morally corrupt, or politically naïve.”

Most of the high-profile ayatollahs and officials accused by Palizdar belong to a faction of the conservative camp known as Ahmadinejad’s critics and potential rivals for the 2009 presidential elections.

Some conservative news websites have sought linkages between Palizdar and Ahmadinejad. The president’s supporters deny any connection to him, although Palizdar’s name was reportedly on the list of Ahmadineajd’s allies in Tehran’s third City Council elections. Now, virtually everyone is trying to disown the man who publicly painted a corrupt image of the Islamic Republic.

An anonymous source told the conservative website Entekhab that Palizdar had access to documents relating to more than 120 financial corruption cases, including one involving Kayhan newspaper, which is well-known for its collaboration with government attempts to defame journalists, intellectuals and civil society activists.

“Considering the references to Kayhan have been eliminated and it mostly addresses Hashemi and Khatami’s era, things point to a specific political agenda, as well,” Isa Saharkhiz, a prominent journalist and a board member of the Association for Press Freedom, told IPS from Tehran.

“Naturally, this action also targets the upcoming presidential elections in which Ahmadinejad’s diminishing popularity might not automatically make him the winning candidate. His supporters are attempting to keep him in the race and in the Iranian political arena,” Saharkhiz said.

The names that Palizdar cited include former President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, chairman of the Assembly of Experts and the Expediency Council; the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran, Mohammad Emami Kashani; the head of the Imam Reza Shrine Foundation, Ayatollah Vaez Tabbasi; Iran’s former chief justice Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi; and the head of the inspection office of the Supreme Leader, Nateq-Nuri, who handles counter-intelligence and other sensitive investigations.

Shamsolvaezin also said that he doubts Ahmadinejad can take advantage of the controversy. “If he tries to use it as an excuse, an impediment to his success, he is admitting that they are stronger than him and he is not capable of stopping them,” he said. “Ahmadinejad’s new supporters are all involved in extensive financial and construction projects; therefore it would be very difficult for him to claim a cleaner cabinet than the previous ones.”

Many analysts in Tehran believe that people should expect more names and cases to be revealed.

“This is a gladiators’ game, continuing until all opponents are eliminated,” said Saharkhiz.

Hossein Bastani, a co-founder of Rooz online daily who now lives in France, told IPS, “The game has reached levels where compromises among different conservative factions of Iran are no longer possible. Mr. Khamenei [Iran’s Supreme Leader] will certainly intervene at certain times to avoid further infighting, but I don’t know how successful he can be. When, during power struggles, red lines are passed, it is no longer possible to sit at a table and resolve differences. It is not possible to reach a compromise now.”

Bastani added that authoritarian regimes are almost always associated with financial corruption.

“[The opposition] might wait until the elections for their retaliation,” said Bastani, adding that, “Nothing older than 18 months [prior to elections] can make a serious impact. The impact it could have is to escalate the infighting of conservatives to the point of no return.”

Widespread rumors about corrupt ayatollahs and officials are not new, but it is the first time that an insider has stepped forward with specific accusations. If the government does not publicly take Palizdar to court and let him prove his allegations, his arrest will almost certainly be seen as an attempt at a cover-up.

*Omid Memarian is World Peace Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is the recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Human Rights Defender award and a regular contributor to IPS.