A senior Iranian intelligence official confirmed widespread rumors that an unprecedented anti-corruption campaign is taking place at the top of Iran's judiciary, with some senior figures already in prison. The Iranian judiciary is one of the most powerful and secretive institutions in the Islamic Republic. She is nominally nominated by the Iranian Ministry of Justice, but her senior officials, including the head of the judiciary, are directly appointed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It follows that the judiciary has been a profoundly conservative institution throughout the country's existence, and particularly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Until earlier this year, the judiciary was led by Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, a protege of Khamenei, who had appointed him chief judge in August 2009. Throughout Larijani's decade, there were rumors of rampant corruption in the judiciary, but Khamenei never wanted to intervene. However, in March of this year Larijani was suddenly removed from his position and replaced 
with Ebrahim Raeesi, a former Conservative Attorney General with lower-middle-level clerical credentials. As soon as he took charge of the judiciary, Raeesi announced a broad campaign to fight corruption. In July, the media leaked that Iranian deputy head of justice, Akbar Tabari, had been arrested.
On Wednesday, Ali Abdollahi, head of the intelligence and security wing of the judiciary, said in a speech that Tabari had actually been jailed for "exerting influence on some legal cases" and "having illegal and unethical relationships". He added that a number of other members of the judiciary were arrested in connection with the investigation into Tabari. Abdollahi said on Thursday that the arrests have taken place under the direction of Supreme Leader Khamenei and will continue both inside and outside the judiciary. There would be "no delay in cleaning up the inside and outside of the judiciary," Abdollahi said. Raeesi and Khamenei have not made public comments. But now observers believe the unprecedented wave of arrests would never have reached the upper echelons of the judiciary had the supreme leader not personally given the green light to the anti-corruption campaign.
