‘Sultan of Cars’, His Wife Sentenced to Death in Iran

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili said the criminal case includes a mixture of crimes, such as disrupting the country’s currency market and the automobile market.

Vahid Behzadi and his wife, Najva Lasheidaee, have been condemned to death on charges of major disruption to the country’s monetary and currency system, currency smuggling through dummy purchase orders, disrupting the system of distribution of commodities by purchasing more than 6,700 cars in advance from Iranian carmaker Saipa, and money-laundering involving a sum of 32 trillion rials, Esmaeili added.

The Judiciary spokesman noted that 24,700 gold coins and 100 kilograms of gold have been confiscated from the convicted woman’s dwelling.

He also noted that former CEO of Saipa car factory, Mahdi Jamali, has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for involvement in disruption to distribution mechanisms, while the former deputy head of the carmaker’s marketing department has been sentenced to 15 years.

Moreover, two parliamentarians, Mohammad Azizi and Fereidoon Ahmadi, have been sentenced to 61 months in prison each for their roles in disrupting the car market, he noted.

Since August 2018, Iran’s Judiciary has been holding public trials of individuals involved in major economic corruption cases.