TEHRAN - Mir Ali Ashraf Abdollah Pouri-Hosseini, the former head of the Iranian Privatization Organization, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for economic corruption.

Pouri-Hosseini served the post since September 2013, but he was arrested on August 13, 2019, on the charge of ‘illegal ceding’ of shares, Mehr reported.

He has disrupted the national production system through transferring shares of large state-run organizations without observing legal procedures and without paying attention to related policies, a source familiar with the situation told the YJC on Wednesday.

Over 29.98 trillion rials (about $713.8 million) worth of the shares of state-run companies has been transferred to the private sector during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19, 2020).

The law on privatizing state-owned companies was declared in 2006 in a bid to downsize the government and promote the private sector’s role in the national economy.

The privatization plan aimed at boosting productivity, investment, and job creation, as well as promoting trade.

MG