Iranian news website Energy Press reports that the judiciary of Tehran province said on April 30 that it had commuted a death sentence handed down against Babak Zanjani.  

Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters that following an appeal for clemency, Babak Zanjani, 50, was reportedly sentenced instead to 20 years behind bars. 

With the approval of the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and the agreement of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Zanjani’s death sentence was overturned and was commuted to 20 years of imprisonment.

The judiciary chief had reportedly taken into consideration his cooperation during his time in prison and his return of properties held abroad.

“Considering his cooperation and the fact that he has been in prison for more than 10 years, and the property of this person was identified abroad, and by sending experts and evaluating and verifying, all property was returned from abroad,” the judiciary said, according to Energy Press.   

Recall, Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani was arrested on December 30, 2013 and taken to Tehran’s Evin prison.  The arrest comes after 12 Iranian lawmakers accused Mr. Zanjani of corruption, calling for an inquiry into his financial activities in a letter to the heads of the three branches of the Iranian government.

Iran's parliament began investigating Zanjani’s business dealings in September 2013, after he was accused of withholding 1.9 billion U.S. dollars of oil revenue meant to be channeled through his companies.

Mr. Zanjani denied the allegation.

The Central Bank of Iran said in December 2013 that Mr. Zanjani had not transferred the outstanding amount.

After being accused of withholding money early 2014, Mr. Zanjani said that he had already transferred 700 million U.S. dollars, but that the international sanctions were preventing him from handing over the remaining 1.2 billion U.S. dollars.

The United States and the European Union have both blacklisted Babak Zanjani for helping Iran's government and several firms evade an oil embargo.

Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on December 30, 2013 that Tajik central bank has denied any cooperation with Mr. Zanjani.  Abdughaffor Qurbonov, the then spokesman for the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), told RFE/RL on December 30 that a document presented by Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani to the Iranian parliament that purported to establish such a connection is fake.

A group of Iranian lawmakers reportedly also expressed doubts regarding the authenticity of the document, which allegedly showed that US$2 billion had been transferred to Iran's Oil Ministry from the Tajik National Bank.

Iran’s news agency Mehr reported on November 26, 2016 that Iranian Supreme Court has overturned death sentence of Iranian billionaire businessman Babak Zanjani.  Zanjani was reportedly sentenced to death in April 2016, but he appealed the ruling

Hussein Dehdashti, one of members of the special committee for investigation into Babak Zanjani’s case, has told Iranian newspaper Shargh in June 2015 that 1/15 of Babak Zanjani’s capital is now in Tajikistan.

Iran’s investigative authorities said in April 2017 that property and assets belonging to Babak Zanjani in Tajikistan have been revealed and they are currently waiting for lifting of Western sanctions for retrieving them to Iran.

According to Iranian media outlets, Hussein Dehdashti informed Iranian parliamentarians about that.  According to him, a part of Zanjani’s property in Tajikistan has already been revealed and all necessary documents have been submitted to Tajikistan’s judicial authorities.

Zanjani’s property and assets in Tajikistan have reportedly been revealed in the course of an unofficial inspection carried out by representatives of the investigative committee in Tajikistan.  

Tajik authorities have claimed that Babak Zanjani has no property in Tajikistan.  The then head of the State Committee on Investment and State-owned Property Management, Qodir Qosim, stated in 2015 that Iranian tycoon Babak Zanjani has never invested in Tajikistan.  “Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani has no property in Tajikistan,” Qodir Qosim told reporters in Dushanbe on January 27, 2015, noting that Babak Zanjani participated in an official opening of the Dushanbe renovated bus terminal on March 12, 2013 as an honorable guest but not as an investor.   

Some sources, however, said at the time that Babak Zanjani’s Tajik empire includes a bank, an airline, a taxi service and a bus terminal that President Emomali Rahmon himself helped inaugurate in March 2013.