The Iranian judiciary on Sunday sentenced two people to death for smuggling currency, the Iranian press has named one of them as the "prince of gold pieces," according to the news agency Mezan of the judiciary.
"The Supreme Court examined two individuals who, during preliminary trials, were convicted of spreading corruption on the ground and were sentenced to death today," Iran's judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni said.
The two convicts are Wahid Mazloumin, nicknamed "Amir of the Golden Pieces," and Mohammed Ismail Qasimi, who has not been nominated for any information.
They were first accused of "disrupting the Iranian economy" by setting up an illegal currency and gold exchange network. According to AFP.
During the pre-trial hearings in this trial, which began on September 8, a third person, Hamid Baqeri Darmani, was charged with corruption and sentenced to death. But appealed to the Supreme Court, which has yet to make its decision.
He said the ratification on Sunday of the death sentence against those accused is "a warning to opportunists" who seek to destabilize the economy at a time when Iran is "under pressure from the enemy."
