The lawyers of Iranian billionaire, Babak Zanjani who has been sentenced to death on charges of corruption have appealed for clemency.
He allegedly owes the Iranian government $1.9bn in oil money and new claims were laid against him later on.
Zanjani
is a business man who went from trading sheepskins in the 1980s to
becoming a key player in selling Iran's oil in the years when crippling
international sanctions were imposed over the country's nuclear
programme.
He is never reluctant to show off his possessions
which include private jets and luxury cars, rubbing shoulders with top
government officials.
It is quite a spectacle how
he made so much money in Iran's restrictive economy, which came to be
due to sanctions based on the country's nuclear programme.
Soon the media started reporting about him, and when Hassan Rouhani took office, Zanjani was arrested and accused of corruption and embezzlement.
He
has now been sentenced to death having been found guilty of corruption,
and his lawyers have appealed that he be released so he can pay back
the money he owes.
According to the BBC, the soon
to be executed Zanjani called himself a hero, an economic soldier of the
Islamic revolution who came to his country's rescue when the government
could not sell oil or, even if they did, no international banks would
agree to transfer Iran's money due to the sanctions.
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