The Latest from Iran (26 December): The Battle Against the President's Men
Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 7:14
1935 GMT: Economy Watch. More on the Parliamentary report criticising the Ahmadinejad Government's handling of the economy (see 1640 GMT)....
The report claims the Government did not transfer $1.58 billion in interest from oil income to the Treasury in 2006 and withheld $2,3 millions interest from gas income to the Treasury in 2007.
1925 GMT: More "Justice". Yet more extracts from the press conference of Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi....
The prosecutor admitted what had already been suspected about the detention last week of economist Fariborz Reisdana: the "crime" of the expert was commenting to BBC Persian about the government's subsidy cuts, calling them a "hallucination" that would not benefit the Iranian people.
On a different front, Doulatabadi confirmed the judiciary's line on the corruption case of 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi: the first set of findings has gone to court and the second is being prepared.
Doulatabadi insisted --- despite the declarations of Ahmadinejad aide Rahim-Mashai defying the judiciary --- that the President welcomed the investigation.
Leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli, an ally of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, has repeated his claim that the judiciary is under pressure to drop the Rahimi case. Tavakoli's allegation is carried in Larijani's Khabar Online.