Iran billionaire Babak Zanjani sentenced to death

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35739377

by sosuke • 10 years ago

38 28 10 years ago

sitkack• 10 years ago

I get this sense that America's war with Iran is over how it treats its billionaires. If only they didn't treat them so badly, we could just both get along?

ryall• 10 years ago

Won't someone think of the billionaires?!

booo_URRNNS• 10 years ago

Simple booing, without further context, is one of the things I hate about this site.

It'd be nice if someone would add context to the downvotes, by commenting with a matching opinion.

jakejake• 10 years ago

I think that most wars are are just based on the wealthy and powerful retaining or increasing their wealth and power. Average citizens generally don't have problems with each other. Excepting whatever propaganda we've been fed.

fhdhxnsh3• 10 years ago

I almost wish we'd hold criminal executives in the US accountable to a similar level. Many have destroyed and indirectly ended far more lives through malice than any direct murderer ever will.

fhdhxnsh3• 10 years ago

mmmm, I love those no-reply disagreement downvotes.

personomas3• 10 years ago

It's their fear. "When I'm rich, I don't want to be killed for doing terrible things." After all, this is a rich man's site.

dang• 10 years ago

HN doesn't require replies when downvoting. It does require that commenters not go on about getting downvoted, so please don't do that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

cryptoz• 10 years ago

The death penalty does not dissuade future offenders from committing crimes. It does not teach us about why those crimes are committed, either. With the death penalty, you create a society of anger, hatred, revenge, and violence. You improve nothing.

Its only purpose is revenge, and that has no place in our legal system.

Instead, this criminal should be removed from society so he no longer does harm (jail), and it should be studied why he committed those crimes, and we should attempt to rehabilitate to learn more about how to build a better society.

personomas3• 10 years ago

The death penalty can have two purposes:

1) First, fear is a motive to not commit those crimes. 2) Second, it's purpose can be to completely get rid of the evil that he or she was. If you kill the person, there's no more of his evil. Wealthy or powerful evil people can have devastating and evil effects on so many people, and so it might not be worth keeping them alive.

deciplex• 10 years ago

I don't think we should have a death penalty, so I don't agree with the parent either. However, pretty much all the data we have on the efficacy of the death penalty relates to one crime, murder, and even then it's under a narrow range of conditions. I don't think you can reliably take those findings and apply them to e.g. white-collar corruption.

jonesb6• 10 years ago

Why do people who make a significant amount of money in countries like Russia, Turkey, China, etc, stay in their home countries?

mdahlstrand• 10 years ago

Because they are able to make significantly more money if they stay?

Ao7bei3s• 10 years ago

Also because they're their home countries. It's what they know and where their friends/family are.

And if you're rich enough that you can afford pretty much anything there, why would you move?

ameen• 10 years ago

How did you club Turkey in there?

drinchev• 10 years ago

Turkey has a semi-dictatorship these days, no?

dogma11382• 10 years ago

Erdogan has been cleaning house arresting and harassing journalists, judges, generals, and businessmen for years now.

HillRat• 10 years ago

His wealth was connected to the patronage of the hardline Iranian government and his willingness and ability to help them evade international sanctions. In that, he's a bit like the Chechen operators who murdered Nemtsov and didn't bother to cover their tracks because they assumed they were protected by the Kremlin.

joshmn• 10 years ago

In the US he would have just gotten a fine.

Edit: Not sure the downvotes. Wall Street, hello.

kordless• 10 years ago

Or, optionally, drive his car into a highway divider at a high rate of speed.

nonuby• 10 years ago

In this case it is obvious high rank Iranian officials both government and private (in banking network) were complicit for a long time with Babak, perhaps the brown envelopes got a little too small..

Iran billionaire Babak Zanjani sentenced to death

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