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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's former vice president has been convicted of a charge that includes a prison term and a cash fine, a spokesman for the Islamic Republic's judiciary said Monday, though details about the case were not announced.
The conviction of Mohammad Reza Rahimi, a top aide to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, comes after repeated allegations by foes of Iran's previous hard-line government of massive corruption. Rahimi has maintained his innocence and judicial spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei also said that the conviction had yet to be finalized, without elaborating.
"I refrain from revealing details of the verdict until it is not finalized," Ejehei was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency. "But there is a jail term and cash fine in the verdict for him."
In March, the reformist daily newspaper Shargh quoted a judge as saying that Rahimi had been indicted and that his case would be referred to a special court. It did not elaborate then on the charges.
Iran has 11 vice presidents but Rahimi was the most senior among them in Ahmadinejad's government. Previously, Ahmadinejad had defended Rahimi, saying that his complaints against the accusations should be investigated as well while maintaining he had the "most clean administration" in Iran's history.
However, allegations dogged Ahmadinejad's government in its later years. In 2010, some of Ahmadinejad's political foes alleged Rahimi had a part in a major government embezzlement scheme, without releasing details. Lawmakers accused Rahimi of signing falsified financial documents.
Iran is in the middle of a 20-year plan to decentralize and privatize its economy. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, repeatedly has warned officials over possible corruption during implementing the program.
In May, Iran executed a billionaire businessman Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, convicted of being at the heart of a $2.6 billion state bank scam in Iran. It was the largest fraud case since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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