Ayatollah ally in dock over theft of £15m garden

A LEADING Iranian cleric and ally of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been accused of stealing a plot of land worth £15million.

Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi, the Imam of Tehran, and his sons have taken over a 45,200 sq ft garden in a prime location in the capital, according to documents released by a whistleblower.

The land lies next to a seminary founded by Mr Sedighi. It was originally owned by the seminary but ownership has now passed to a family-owned company led by the cleric and his two sons, the documents show.

The papers were unearthed by Yashar Soltani, an investigative journalist who has previously exposed numerous cases of corruption among Iran’s leadership

Responding to the reports, Mr Sedighi claimed that he was unaware of the land’s title being transferred into his children’s names and that “his signature must have been forged”.

“Do not listen to these noises and accusations against me and my family,” he told Iranian state media. “They stem from the behindthe-scenes plots to discredit our religious establishment.”

The latest corruption scandal to hit Iran’s top officials came as the country faces numerous economic woes as a result of sanctions and mismanagement.

Official statistics put the number of people living under the poverty line at more than 21 million.

Mr Sedighi has been accused of hypocricy as he regularly criticises those who accumulate wealth at the expense of ordinary citizens in a country where more than 21 million people live under the poverty line.

Fazel Meyboudi, a liberal cleric, said: “Given the extent of our people’s economic hardships, the news of Kazem Sedighi’s actions and words sadly cause nothing but disgrace for the clerical establishment.”

The scandal, will “turn our youth away from them as they see them as part of the same corrupt body”, he added.

Abbas Abdi, a reformist politician, said: “We can live with a corrupt person but not a deceitful ayatollah who preaches moralities to us.”

Mr Sedighi is the head of the citadel for the promotion of morality and prevention of vice, an umbrella group of smaller groups tasked with enforcing the regime’s strict hijab rules.

‘We can live with a corrupt person but not a deceitful ayatollah’