Former Tehran mayor appeals again for retrial on corruption
charges
TEHRAN, April 21 (AFP) - Tehran's former moderate mayor Gholamhossen
Karbaschi, convicted last year of corruption, lodged another appeal to
the supreme court Wednesday seeking a retrial, his lawyer said.
The move followed the failure Tuesday of a similar appeal to the supreme
court by Karbaschi, who faces arrest at any time to serve a two-year jail
term imposed in December.
If Karbaschi's latest appeal is accepted by the court, implementation
of the sentence would be postponed, his lawyer Bahman Keshavarz said, without
saying how this court action differed from earlier appeals.
Karbaschi, politically close to reformist President Mohammad Khatami,
was forced out of office last year and sentenced to five years in prison
and a 20-year ban on holding public office on corruption charges that he
insisted were a political set-up.
In December the sentence was reduced by an appeals court to two years
in jail and a 10-year ban.
Although he is officialy suspended from all functions, Karbaschi's successor
as Tehran mayor has yet to be named.
Karbaschi's trial was widely seen among reformers and moderates as a
politically motivated attack by the regime's conservatives and hardliners.
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