ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s interior minister charged that “dirty money” had found its way into Iranian politics, a week after a former vice president was jailed for corruption.
Speaking at a police conference on drugs, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said that money from drugs and other illicit sources had washed into Iranian politics, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
“A substantial portion of the moral corruption in this country originates from the introduction of dirty money into politics,” the minister was quoted as saying.
“Some of this money is now in politics,” Rahmani Fazli told police officials charged with fighting drugs trafficking. “This dirty money is everywhere,” he added.
The minister cited the example of an unidentified candidate for municipal elections who had spent $600,000 on his campaign, without being able to explain where it came from.
“When asked where it came from, he says friends helped him,” Rahmani Fazli said.
Last week a former vice president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, was jailed after a court convicted him of “acquiring wealth through illicit methods.”
His initial 15-year sentence was reduced to five by the supreme court, which also ordered him to pay a fine equivalent to $300,000 and compensation equal to $800,000.
Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, who is regarded as a moderate, has said that the fight against official corruption is one of his main priorities.
