An unseated Iranian judge has been sentenced to 10 years in jail and barred from public office after being convicted of sexually molesting underage girls, reported the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, citing a press report on Saturday.
The Resaalat said that "Kazem Montazeri Moqaddam, former judge with the revolutionary court in Karaj, 40 kilometers west of Tehran, has also been found guilty of bribery, illegal detention and abusing his position."
Resaalat added that some of the 15 people suspected of complicity with the judge had been acquitted.
It did not make clear the jail terms given to the accomplices.
The case centered around the abuse of girls staying at a group home for troubled youth in Karaj, said IRNA.
Mohammad Mahin Khaki, manager of the home called the Center of Islamic Orientation, has been slapped with one year in jail and payment of an unspecified cash fine, Resaalat said.
The home was created four years ago, without government approval, to house dozens of girls between the ages of 12 and 18 who had run away from home or had troubles with law.
Other scandals have rocked the Iranian judiciary.
Last December, Judiciary Head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said more than three dozen Iranian judges and bailiffs were arrested as part of a bribes and corruption probe into the nation's courts – Albawaba.com
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