A courtroom at the revolutionary court in Teh
A courtroom at the revolutionary court in TehAFP photo

Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran's first vice president under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been sentenced to five years in prison and fined, AFP reported Wednesday.

Appointed by Ahmadinejad after a controversial election win in 2009, Rahimi is the most senior official from that era to have been convicted.

The Supreme Court's verdict came after a long-running trial on what Iranian media said were corruption charges.

The official IRNA news agency said the ruling was final and Rahimi, 66, would serve five years and 91 days in jail and be fined 10 billion rials (about $364,000).

It did not state what his crimes were, but noted that a previous court had sentenced him to 15 years of prison.

Rahimi was also ordered to pay 28.5 billion rials as restitution, but the report did not say to whom.

Iran's judiciary had previously said it could not reveal the details of Rahimi's case because the verdict was not final, but IRNA again gave no specifics about his crimes, noting only that the sentence "should now be executed".

Lawmakers had accused Rahimi of heading up an embezzlement scheme. He was questioned by judicial officials before being placed on bail in December 2013.

President Hassan Rouhani, Ahmadinejad's successor, has warned in recent months that corruption poses a threat to Iran, and he has taken aim at powerful monopolies that control the economy.

In 2012, Rahimi alleged that the prevalence of narcotics and drug-addiction throughout the world is rooted in the Talmud.

“The book teaches them how to destroy non-Jews so as to protect an embryo in the womb of a Jewish mother,” Rahimi stated, adding that the “Zionists'” direct involvement in the prevalence of illicit drugs is why "you cannot find a single addict among the Zionists".

In another incident, Rahimi declared that Tehran will “break the grasping hands” of. President Barack Obama and would overcome U.S.-led sanctions against the country.