Khatami loses ally as mayor gets jail sentence and ban from public office

An Iranian court yesterday sentenced Tehran's mayor to five years in prison and banned him from holding public office for 20 …

An Iranian court yesterday sentenced Tehran's mayor to five years in prison and banned him from holding public office for 20 years, depriving the moderate President, Mr Mohammad Khatami, of one of his most potent allies.

Gholamhossein Karbaschi was not present when the judge found him guilty of embezzlement, squandering state property and mismanagement. He was acquitted on a separate charge of bribery.

"I considered God and the doomsday in issuing my verdict," said Judge Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, a Shia Muslim cleric who under Iranian law was also the prosecutor in the case that pitted the mayor's moderate allies against the conservative-run judiciary.

The judge then ordered Karbaschi to serve five years in prison, pay a fine of one billion rials (£240,000) and receive 60 lashes, the latter suspended for four years.

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The mayor was also directed to repay 17.6 billion rials in looted public property to the city coffers.

Most damaging to Karbaschi, a hard-charging manager with impeccable Islamic revolutionary credentials and a once-bright future, was his being barred from government office for 20 years.

That ruling was the latest blow to Mr Khatami, whose May 1997 electoral campaign for greater pluralism got a big political and organisational boost from the mayor and his cronies in Iran's business and managerial elite.

The judge denied that Iran's broader political struggle had played any part in his decision.

The weight of the verdict took many observers by surprise. One former judge said that lesser sentences were commonly handed down in such cases. "It is not unlikely that political considerations have affected this verdict," he said. The Iranian press had largely predicted Karbaschi - whose conviction was widely anticipated - would serve no jail time and face only a limited ban from political office.

There was no immediate comment from the mayor, who has 20 days in which to appeal. His lawyer left the courtroom without comment.

The Karbaschi case, the first broadcast on television under the Islamic republic, captured the public imagination and highlighted underlying tensions within the ruling elite between right-wing and moderate factions.

Supporters of the mayor say that the establishment was out to punish him for his open support for Mr Khatami and his reforms. At worst, they say, Karbaschi cut corners to get things done.

Critics, mostly on the right but also some from left-wing intellectual circles, say he built a powerful political machine based on graft, enriching himself and his partners along the way. One hardline faction demanded his execution.

Analysts have suggested Iran's supreme leader, Mr Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in such matters, may pardon the mayor in a second attempt to prevent internal divisions from spilling over into open political warfare.