Corruption in Tehran Municipality continues

Corruption in Tehran Municipality continues

Corruption in Tehran Municipality continues. According to Iran Gate news, the recent arrest of one of the officials and employees of Alireza Zakani’s office has caused a lot of controversy. This news, which was disclosed by a member of Tehran City Council, has brought the corruption series in Tehran Municipality into a new phase. However, the reason for the arrest of this unidentified individual is still unknown.

Mehdi Abbasi, a member of Tehran City Council, recently announced the arrest of one of the officials of Tehran Mayor’s office on charges of financial corruption. Prior to his speech and following the instructions of the Supreme Leader, he stated that someone who is involved in corruption will not be able to fight against corruption. He did not disclose the identity of the detained person, nor did he mention any connection between this person and Alireza Zakani. However, many believe that this individual is most likely a close associate of the current Mayor of Tehran and has direct contact with him.

Who is the arrested individual?

The information available to Iran Gate indicates that the detained individual not only has a close relationship with the Zakani family, but also has no prior experience in this field before Zakani’s management of the Tehran Municipality, and is now working with his current chief for the first time in the municipality. However, this is not surprising as Zakani’s pattern of selecting managers and even mid-level employees shows that he has systematically changed the personnel of the Tehran Municipality.

Of course, the identity of the detained individual is not yet known to the media, but the investigation of corruption cases in the past two years in the Tehran Municipality suggests that the Tehran Mayor was definitely aware of the details and was informed about the corruption of the mentioned individual.

Zakani’s connection to corruption cases in the Tehran Municipality

The information available to Iran Gate indicates serious follow-up by relevant authorities regarding this individual’s connection with the Mayor of Tehran and his deputies. The repeated publication of corruption news in Tehran Municipality has led judicial authorities to become more sensitive to this case. Even Mehdi Abbasi, the head of the Urban Planning and Architecture Commission of Tehran City Council, announced prior to his order to arrest several other close associates of Zakani and his office staff during the year 1401.

There are also reports of misconduct by direct employees of Alireza Zakani’s office, it is unclear whether these actions are under investigation by judicial authorities. The scope of these actions is so extensive that it ranges from receiving bribes ranging from one to two million tomans to interfering in the change of land use in major projects that have yielded multi-billion-toman rents for these individuals.

Reports have also reached Iran Gate regarding the holding of secret meetings in Tehran City Council, where members have launched severe attacks against the Mayor of Tehran. According to these reports, council members have accused Zakani on multiple occasions of being aware of the corruption of the Mayor’s office staff.

On the one hand, the credibility of the statements made by the council members is undermined by the fact that individuals who have been arrested and accused of financial misconduct have entered this organization after Zahkani’s appointment as the mayor of Tehran. This means that Zahkani cannot absolve himself of responsibility and claim ignorance of the corruption that exists under his leadership.

Zahkani’s escape forward

Amidst the heated controversy surrounding the arrest of one of Alireza Zahkani’s close associates on charges of financial corruption, an attempt was made to provide an explanation and portray the mayor of Tehran as innocent and untainted. However, some members of the city council consider the statements made by Abdolmotaher Mohammadkhani, the deputy of human resources at the Tehran Municipality, as lies and claim that the judicial authorities are aware of the details of the matter, making it impossible for the mayor of Tehran to conceal the corruption of his subordinates.

The argument escalates

It is said that in a closed session of the Tehran City Council on Wednesday, two council members presented documents indicating Zahkani’s knowledge of financial misconduct by his office employees in Tehran Municipality. However, we have not yet received any details about this matter. It seems that the differences have escalated to the extent that even the City Council, which is predominantly composed of fundamentalists and even hardliners who are aligned with Zahkani, may engage in serious conflicts with the current Mayor of Tehran.

Some documents have also been presented in the City Council session regarding the payment of astronomical salaries to mid-level employees of the Mayor’s office in Tehran, but there is currently no evidence to substantiate this claim, and Iran Gate cannot confirm the authenticity of this news. However, if new pay slips or other arrests are published in the media in the coming days, it will not be surprising.

It appears that there is an internal group dispute over the division of positions and even political relationships, which has caused tensions between the hardline members of the Tehran City Council and Alireza Zahkani, the revolutionary mayor of Tehran. It is even possible that he may be dismissed from this important position.