Despite this acknowledgment, the seminary he oversees maintained innocence and stated that the plot's ownership was in the process of being returned. “Claiming [the plot] is in the process of being repatriated [to the seminary], several months after the crime was committed and following its revelation, has no effect on the [nature of the] crime itself,” Mohsen Borhani, a dissident lawyer with seminary training, said on Instagram, arguing that repatriation of the plot, if completed, can only be a factor contributing to reduction of the prescribed sentence for the crime. Iran International TV’s “Your Side of the Story” program received dozens of messages last week from citizens who are extremely distrustful of a regime they say is “systematically corrupt” and incorrigible.
