Al-Monitor - With Iran facing more US sanctions and a battered currency, the judiciary is charging aggressively into an anti-corruption probe in the hope that it will help stabilize the economic situation. Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Iran�s top prosecutor, told reporters on Aug. 15 that the operation will cast a wide net and further remarked, �Any official that needs to be will be summoned, from director generals to managers to deputies and [even] ministers.�

On Aug. 7, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, spokesman for the judiciary, announced the arrest of Ahmad Aragchi, deputy minister for currency at the Central Bank of Iran. He is the highest-ranking official to be arrested in the anti-corruption probe, and as the nephew to Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, he is also the most well known.

Responding in part to a request by senior clerics to quickly address cases of economic corruption, the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, on Aug. 12 had sent a 12-point letter to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asking for permission to prosecute economic corruption cases more expeditiously. That same day,�Ayatollah Khamenei reacted by publishing his response, and the letter, on his website. He granted his approval and added �with the intention that punishment of economic corruption be rapid and just.� Ayatollah Khamenei also addressed Larijani�s letter in his latest speech Aug. 12, declaring, �It is an important step for fighting corruption.�

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