No Accountability As Khamenei’s Ayatollahs Steal Millions
They preach on Fridays telling Iranians to tolerate economic hardship but Khamenei's ayatollahs enjoy immunity for corruption as his regional representatives.
They preach on Fridays telling Iranians to tolerate economic hardship but Khamenei's ayatollahs enjoy immunity for corruption as his regional representatives.
Revelations about numerous cases of economic corruption and land and forest grabs by Ali Khamenei’s representatives across the country have outraged Iranians with fury so deep that even a few brave politicians have dared to speak out.
The Friday Prayer Imams, the regional representatives pushing the regime rhetoric, have managed to evade prosecution and remain immune to legal consequences.
The latest case involved Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda -- the Friday Imam of Mashhad and the father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi– who has been pocketing large sums of money from the Goharshad endowment without any real responsibility or duties.
Last week, Vahid Ashtari, a hardline whistle-blower known for revealing corruption among Iran’s senior officials, published a thread of tweets with details about one of the biggest financial endowments of the country, Goharshad, ironically meaning Happy Jewel in English. The endowment is second only to the "Astan Quds Razavi," another charity controlled by clerics close to Alamolhoda. As part of the decree that gives the charitable foundation to Alamolhoda, he can have 10 percent of its total income as his personal salary, while another 10 percent provides the salaries of all the other staff who work there. Alamolhoda has confirmed the reports but claims that whatever he is doing is legal.
This means that the firebrand cleric, who had been serving as the trustee of the Goharshad Mosque endowment about seven years ago, receives a substantial monthly cut of approximately 100 billion rials (about $200,000), according to Iran International’s investigative journalist Mojtaba Pourmohsen. The average monthly salary of an Iranian is about $150 to $200.
Another high-profile case is Ayatollah Kazem Nourmofidi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the northern Golestan province, whose rule over the province’s forest exploitation has always been known among locals. He owns the largest wood businesses in the region and his offspring are involved in at least 20 wood companies.
Nourmofidi, who is the brother in law of another great ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Langrani, is pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars per month for wood smuggling from the lush forests of northern Iran.
Another Friday imam who is taking advantage of his relationship with Khamenei is Zeinolabedin Ghorbani, the former representative of Khamenei in Gilan province. He started a shopping mall project in the city and pre-sold the units upon the inauguration but never delivered them and people who paid found no remedy in courts.
Ashtari is a member of Edalat Khahan (Justice Seekers), a political group of mainly of young conservatives and university students who are loyal to Khamenei and are also close to former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili who ran against Raisi. In April last year, his revelations sparked the Layette-gate scandal that led to calls for the resignation of Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and resurfacing of other alleged corruption cases against his family.
In June, Ashtari's investigations revealed in a series of tweets that a 150-hectare piece of land endowed by a local family in Qazvin including a farm with 1,000 cattle was rented out at a monthly rent of 10m rials (around $20 at current exchange rates) to Mona Chaychian, the daughter-in-law of the head of the State Endowment Organization Mehdi Khamoushi, another Khamenei appointee.
In a public meeting with a group of his representatives last year, Khamenei referred to economic corruption by top clerics as "economic activity" and advised his Friday imams to refrain from engaging in such matters due to their lack of expertise in the field.
Masih Mohajeri, another hardliner activist and politician, said in a strongly-worded article that, "People refuse to accept that in a country with such wealth and resources, a few individuals amass fortunes while millions of families are in poverty. This is not the right of the people who live in a wealthy country."
"Those who claim to have established justice in the Islamic Republic system should address these inequalities by sidelining those close to power who seize public assets and consider themselves righteous and superior to others,” he added. "Do not assume that the patience of the people is endless. Beware of the day when the army of the hungry rise against you."
The statement said, "The policy of a unilateral tendency favoring the East and radical opposition to the West as well as denial of the benefits of balanced relations with world powers have irreparably damaged Iran's interests."
This statement was issued following Russia's support for the claim by United Arab Emirates over the three Iranian islands of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb. The UAE wishes to refer the case to the International Court of Justice. Tehran has dismissed Moscow's stance as "undermining Iran's territorial integrity" and some Friday Prayer Imams in Iran have called for an apology by Russia.
The former diplomats warned that absolute reliance on friendly ties with some countries (Russia and China) will naturally make them believe that they can do anything to Iran.
A day earlier, some websites in Tehran reported on a speech July 12 by former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had argued along the same lines, saying that a perpetual anti-West policy is harmful to national interests.
They said that such a policy will impose a heavy cost on the country, adding that a balanced foreign policy and a realistic approach to international relations, as well as avoiding policies that negatively affect Iran's national interests can be the driving force of an intelligent foreign policy in the current situation.
The statement said Iran owes its territorial integrity to the endeavors of its citizens, and the government is committed by law to defend the country's territorial integrity. It further noted that this was not the first time Russia undermined Iran's interests.
The former diplomats added that dignified diplomacy requires prevention of such unfriendly stances in any way possible. They pointed out that although Iran attaches priority to its international relations and particularly to its ties with Russia, nonetheless, the country's national interests and territorial integrity come over and above everything else. The statement stressed that there is no room for any compromise on the country's national interests.
The senior diplomats further observed: "We believe that the reason for imposing this unacceptable behavior by others and ignoring the Islamic Republic's status and its national interests is that Iran has stopped abiding by its principle of "neither East, nor West" which was its motto after the 1979 revolution.
The lack of a balanced foreign policy will encourage opportunist states to take advantage of their relations with Iran and using it solely to serve their own interests, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the print media in Tehran highlighted the statement on Sunday. Etemad Online quoted academic Ali Asghar Zargar as warning that "Russians can easily play with Iran's card and gamble on Tehran's interests, adding that Iran must be alert about such eventualities and not be content simply by demanding apologies from China and Russia when they undermine its interests.
On the same day, Khabar Online carried a report in which it asked: "Why Russia and China often surprise Iran? Can we expect anything more than this from unilateral relations?" The website added that the controversy over Russia's behavior less than six months after China had adopted a similar position on the issue of the three islands, was an outcome of Iran's imbalanced foreign relations.
Abolfazl Qadiani (Ghadiani), a 78-year-old former Islamic-leftist revolutionary and Khamenei’s comrade-in-arms, who has become an uncompromising opponent said, “religious dictatorship is the worst kind of all dictatorships in the world.”
Qadiani belonged to a leftist, revolutionary group that was supporting the Islamic Republic and Khamenei until the disputed presidential election of 2009, when the Supreme Leader backed the questionable re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Qadiani, with many others, protested the results and was jailed to become an opposition figure.
The former revolutionary said that religious dictatorship has combined “bribes, force and deception” to rule, and Khamenei is the epitome of this dictatorship, who worships power.
His stinging attacks on Khamenei became more frequent since 2018 after the first wave of popular anti-regime protests. His use of terms such as “dictator” and “enemy of the people” to describe Khamenei were unprecedented open rejection of the Leader’s long rule by a public figure in Iran.
However, the regime has been noticeably cautious in not attacking his home and arresting him without a warrant, as it has done so many times with younger opponents who were not from the 1970s revolutionary generation.
In 2018, Qadiani was put on trial for "insults against the Supreme Leader" and was sentenced to three years in prison, as well as hand-copying books written about Khamenei. His charge was "insults against the Supreme Leader" and another two years for "propaganda against the regime".
The old revolutionary rejected the legitimacy of the court, not having attended his own trial, and the regime did not forcibly arrest him to serve the sentence.
However, he intensified his criticisms during the popular anti-regime protests in 2022 and 2023, saying in May thatthe Islamic Republic should be overthrown, going even beyond earlier criticism that mainly targeted Khamenei. However, he left the door open to a peaceful change saying that if Khamenei resigns and repents, the political crisis may get resolved.
Earlier in March, he directly accused Khamenei of orchestrating a series of poison gas attacks on schools that sent hundreds of schoolgirls to hospitals, arguing that the dictator was taking revenge for the Women, Life, Liberty movement and protests.
"In his false belief, by suppressing the street gatherings, he found an opportunity to take revenge to appease his evil spirit. So, he has targeted the physical and mental health and safety of the brave pioneers of the movement,”Qadiani said, knowing that there could well be retaliation.
In early July, the response came when a court sentenced him to 10 months in prison and now Qadiani says he will be happy to serve the sentence and will voluntarily surrender. He added that it would be a joy for him to spend time with other regime opponents in prison, “despite multiple illnesses I have.”
His 10-month jail sentence is for “propaganda against the regime,” with a 10-day notice period to surrender at the court.
Qadiani in his statement published on Saturday said, “Khamenei’s enmity with the Iranian people has been proven to all…and I will present myself to the court on Saturday July 22.”