TEHRAN (Dispatches) – A former state official, Hussein Fereydoun, entered prison Wednesday to begin a five-year sentence after he was convicted of corruption, the ISNA news agency reported, citing his lawyer.
Fereydoun, who served as an aide to President Hassan Rouhani, was arrested in July 2017 and put on trial in February this year on allegations of financial violations.
In a final ruling, his sentence was reduced to five years from seven and he was ordered to pay a fine as well as bribes he was convicted of receiving, the judiciary said on October 1.
An appeals court ordered him to return any property that he had acquired illicitly and fined him 310 billion riyals. That sum is equivalent to $9 million on the country's official exchange rate, but $2.7 million at the free-market exchange rate.
His lawyer said he entered Tehran's Evin prison on Wednesday.
"This morning Mr Fereydoun together with myself were present at the prosecutor's office," Hussein Sartipi said, quoted by ISNA.
"After legal procedures were completed, he was taken to Evin prison and was admitted to the prison," he added.
Fereydoun acted as a key adviser and gatekeeper to the president before his arrest.
The brothers do not share the same name because Rouhani changed his when he was younger to a word meaning "cleric".
President Rouhani promised to curb corruption in the 2013 and 2017 election campaigns.