Iran court upholds two-year jail term for convicted
Tehran mayor
TEHRAN, April 3 (AFP) - Iran's supreme court has upheld a two-year
prison sentence against former reformist Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi,
moderate newspapers reported here Saturday.
Karbaschi, who was convicted on corruption charges last year but has
been free while his case was under appeal, is due to be arrested "in
the next few days," the Sobh-e-Emrouz paper said.
Karbaschi told the paper he had not yet been informed of the decision,
and while other papers also reported the ruling there has been no official
confirmation from the justice ministry.
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, a decision he appealed again to the supreme
court. His trial was widely seen among reformers and moderates as a
politically motivated attack by the regime's conservatives and hardliners.
Karbaschi's successor as Tehran mayor has yet to be named.
The conservative-dominated commission which supervised February's first-ever
municipal elections in the Islamic republic has threatened to overturn
the election of the capital's top vote-getter, former vice president and
interior minister Abdollah Nuri, widely seen as the most likely candidate
to succeed Karbaschi.
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