Speaker Qalibaf knew about luxury SUVs scheme: Principlist lawmaker

Hossein Jalali, a lawmaker close to the so-called Perseverance Front in the Iranian Parliament, said, “His Excellency the Speaker most definitely approved the offering of the cars.”

“How can the speaker’s subordinates do such a thing and the speaker not know about it?” he asked.

Jalali said Qalibaf should have publicized the matter.

“But it was swept under the rug, and thus, a political blunder was made,” he said. “Now that the [impeached] minister is gone, they want to wrap things up but they can’t.”

Qalibaf on Sunday denied that there had been such a trade-off between the then-Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade, Reza Fatemi-Amin and the members of parliament. Fatemi-Amin was recently impeached and dismissed.

Another lawmaker had earlier claimed that Fatemi-Amin had facilitated access by a number of lawmakers to luxury SUVs in order to have them withdraw their votes of impeachment.

A special inspector appointed by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi investigated the allegations but then claimed that, while the SUVs had been given to the lawmakers, the development had occurred before Raisi’s administration came into office.