Revolutionary Guard and the Judiciary in separate statements Thursday announced that the Intelligence Unit of the Guards has arrested several officials of an industrial company in Alborz Province and has shut down fifty real estate agencies in various cities of Yazd Province.
The statement clearly presented the IRGC Intelligence Organization as an arm of the Judiciary.
The public relations of the Guards in Yazd said the agencies that were shut down "had been suspected of causing disruptions in the real estate market" and were shut down and sealed off by the Intelligence Unit of the Revolutionary Guard.
The Judiciary Department of Alborz Province in its statement said a number of officials of Alborz Industrial Estates Company who have been accused of financial and economic misconduct were arrested for "implementation of anti-corruption plans".
The statement did not offer any other information regarding the arrests and the identity of the officials accused of misconduct but said the result of investigations would be made public when completed.
In 2015 the Ninth Parliament amended the Law of the Criminal Procedure and included the Revolutionary Guard's Intelligence Unit as one of the enforcing arms of the Judiciary.
In the midst of a serious economic crisis and political, social tensions the Iranian regime is eager to show it is fighting corruption.
The fearsome intelligence body's activities are not limited to enforcement on behalf of the Judiciary. The intelligence agency has been criticized for meddling in various political and economic cases and as a parallel organization to the Intelligence Ministry.
The Revolutionary Guard's Intelligence Unit has a free hand in arresting and interrogating politicians, journalists, student activists and even ordinary Iranians such as social media celebrities for what they call "breaking the norms of the society" and has a strong cyber-policing outfit.
In April 2018 the outspoken reformist lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeqi in an open letter to Hossein Ta'eb (Taeb), appointed by the Supreme Leader as the head of the organization, said his subordinates ignored the legal standards set for investigations and neglected the legitimate and lawful rights of those detained.
