In Qom province in central Iran, the Iranian regime’s judiciary has recently sentenced a father of three to 40 lashes and 10 months in prison because he stole three packets of cashew nuts. The cruel sentencing for such a minor crime has caused outrage among Iranian society and the case has gone viral on social media.
The court sentence was issued at a time when trillions of rials from the Iranian people’s property is being looted daily by regime officials and government-linked entities. All the while, the regime’s judiciary is doing nothing.
According to downsized government statistics that the state-run Bahar News website published on October 25, 40 million Iranians need assistance to help provide for their families. From these statistics, this equates to nearly 500 people falling below the absolute poverty line in Iran every hour.
An article on the Asr-e Iran website stated that “more than a third of Iranians live not in poverty, but in absolute poverty…the number of people living below the absolute poverty line a year ago was 26 million.” According to updated figures, a further 4 million have joined them in the past year bringing the total now to 30 million.”
The state-run Shargh daily said, “When the facilities necessary for a dignified and developing lifestyle cannot be provided, and employment is scarce, adequate food and treatment will become the dreams of vulnerable families.”
The current widespread poverty and the fact that a large part of the population is below the absolute poverty line is the flip coin of the astronomical fortunes of regime officials, and institutions linked to the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who controls a large part of the country’s economy.
In an interview in 2014, the Deputy Minister of Economy under then-president Mohammad Khatami, Mohsen Safaei Farahani voiced his concerns over the regime’s corruption. He explained that there are around 120 different institutions linked to the regime or Khamenei and they control about 50% of Iran’s GDP. He also said, regarding the institutions, entities, and foundations, that “there is absolutely no proper control over their performance.”
Most of the institutions and foundations that contribute to this institutionalized plundering are linked to Khamenei, such as the IRGC, the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam (SETAD), (referred to by the U. S. Treasury Department as The Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, ‘EIKO’), and other such entities.
The SETAD, despite being part of the non-government public sector, plays one of the biggest roles in terms of plundering the country’s assets. Its influence and sheer dominance over Iran’s economy reportedly surpass that of the IRGC.
These institutions are plundering the mere property of poor Iranians while the regime brutally oppresses the people’s slightest social and economic demands. This is how the mullahs’ regime defines justice.
The regime is the ones who have left Iranian society living in horrible conditions and instead of helping those in need, they would rather harshly punish the deprived and the poor who must resort to stealing to feed their children.
