Karroubi vows to unveil corruption documents

Presidential hopeful Mehdi Karroubi says he will publish documents which confirm that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is involved in financial fraud.

"After the June 12 presidential election, I will unveil documents pertinent to the 700-million-dollar Ardebil oil case against Ahmadinejad," Karroubi said Tuesday.

In a recent television debate, Ahmadinejad affixed Karroubi to corruption and claimed that he had received 500,000 dollars from Iranian businessman Shahram Jazayeri-Arab -- who has been involved in a high-profile corruption case.

Karroubi said that he did receive 300,000 dollars from Jazayeri but suggested that Jazayeri was not then known to be corrupt and that the money had been spent on benevolent affairs.

In the TV face-off between the two election rivals, Karroubi followed suit with the corruption allegations and said that the president sought to donate 700-million dollars in funds to a person without obtaining the permission of the parliament or the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Karroubi had claimed that a few days after Ayatollah Khamenei expressed opposition to the alleged plan, the then governor of the Central Bank of Iran was sacked.

The presidential hopeful had then said that the time may come for him to publicize documents that indicate government involvement in corruption cases.

Iranian Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi took action in the face of the ongoing blame game on Monday and warned presidential candidates against leveling accusations against rivals just days before the June 12 elections.

"Leveling accusations against natural persons on national television is a crime, which can provoke legal action," said Ayatollah Shahroudi.