We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
Following a court proceeding that Amnesty International, a rights group, described as “fast-tracked” and a “show trial,” Iran executed Vahid Mazloumin (pictured above), a currency trader, this week for the crime of “spreading corruption on Earth.” He was accused of hoarding two tons of gold coins to manipulate gold prices on local markets. An accused accomplice was also killed, and at least 32 other people face jail time in this case. Mazloumin’s defense argued that Iran has no law against hoarding gold coins.
Gold is a particularly sensitive subject in a country where the currency has lost nearly three-quarters of its value against the dollar in recent weeks, and Mazloumin is not the first to be hanged for financial crimes. In August, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the creation of special courts for these types of offenses, and at least seven people have since been executed, according to Amnesty. The trials are often televised.
At a time of new US sanctions and intensifying economic hardship, the Supreme Leader wants Iran’s people to see a decisive state determined to protect them from financial predators, not a government that can’t manage an economy.