Ayatollah Khamenei:

Like Coronavirus, Corruption Is Very Dangerous

Date: 27 June 2020 - 22:15

News ID: ۷۹۹۹۱

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Saturday called on the Iranian Judiciary to press on with tackling corruption with no toleration, while observing the law and moral principles.
Ayatollah Khamenei attended a videoconference held on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Ayatollah Muhammad Beheshti and his companions, who were martyred in a bombing on the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in 1981.
The Leader expressed satisfaction with the Judiciary’s decisive measures against corruption over the past year.
"The recent actions of the Judiciary in reviving public rights are truly pleasing. Prosecutors must try their best to defend the rights of the people. These rights include prosecuting those who harm the environment and confronting the unnecessary shutdown of manufacturing firms,” the Leader said.
Ayatollah Khamenei said people’s easy access to the Judiciary, efforts to improve people’s judicial awareness, constant and direct contact with the people and benefiting from assistance and information from the public in issues such as fighting corruption are examples of the Judiciary being people-oriented.
One of the main duties of the Judiciary, the Leader said, is fighting corruption in any form.
"The fight against corruption, which has reached its peak in this period, should strongly continue without negligence and on the basis of rights, justice and law, with no encroachment and oppression of innocent people.”
"The anti-corruption fight without consideration and negligence offers hope to the people as financial and economic corruption – like the coronavirus – is very dangerous and highly contagious,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.
"The only difference between the coronavirus and the corruption virus is that the coronavirus can be removed by washing hands while the only way to deal with the corruption virus is to cut off the corrupt person’s hand,” the Leader added.
Ayatollah Khamenei said a key point in fighting corruption is supervision and reporting by the public.
"Legal infrastructures should be built for this purpose so that the security of reporters is protected and they feel the Judiciary supports them. Nevertheless, baseless accusations should not be allowed.”
The Leader touched on the U.S. justice system, including President Donald Trump’s an executive order on Friday that instructed federal law enforcement authorities to prosecute people who damage federal monuments or statues.
"The U.S. President talks about 10 years of imprisonment for those who bring down symbols of slavery and racism, and the U.S. government separates the children of immigrants from their parents. But most of the U.S. mainstream media and movies depict American courts as being centers of absolute justice.”
Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to enmities against the Islamic Republic.
"If we do our duty, by God’s grace, the hostilities of the evil U.S.
and the evil UK as well as the European governments’ measures aimed at ‘maximum pressure’ as they call it will fail.”
Earlier this month, Iran’s Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi ordered the prosecutor general and the deputy for international affairs at the Judiciary to take "serious measures” to bring back "financially corrupt” individuals who have fled the country.
Raisi made the call while a major corruption case involving a former deputy judiciary chief is being investigated at a court in Tehran and nearly all of Iranian newspapers have been covering the trial on their front pages.
The Judiciary chief said the West is uncooperative in arresting and returning people charged with financial corruption.
Shortly after Raisi’s remarks, deputy Judiciary chief for international affairs Ali Baqeri said some European countries refuse to cooperate with Iran in arresting and repatriating criminals from Europe.
"Some Western countries take advantage of all means to support those who have committed security and economic crimes and, at the same time, are brazenly claiming that they back the Iranian nation,” Baqeri said.
Some European countries, he said, not only refrain from cooperating with Iran for the extradition of fugitive criminals, but also provide them with refuge and citizenship.
"These countries are not simply a safe haven for terrorists who have the blood of the Iranian nation on their hands, but places of refuge for corrupt individuals and embezzlers, who have been stealing the Iranian people’s money.”
Baqeri took the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to task for its biased reports in support of corrupt elements fleeing Iran.
Instead of shedding crocodile tears, the BBC must "urge the British government to give response to all, including the Iranian nation, about why it has turned into the main haven for violators of the Iranian people’s rights,” including their economic rights, he pointed out.
Gholamreza Mansouri, a judge indicted in absentia at a court in Tehran for receiving 500,000 euros in bribes, was said found dead on Friday at a hotel in Romania’s capital Bucharest.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Mansouri had gone to the Iranian embassy to discuss a potential return and was arrested by Romanian police because he was wanted in Tehran.
Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the former head of Iran’s Bank Melli, has fled to Canada where records show he owns a $3 million home.
"How come some of the countries that claim to be fighting organized corruption and money laundering are providing refuge to criminals and corruption suspects?” Raisi asked this month.
In March 2019, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Raisi as the judiciary chief and called on him to work "against corruption”.