Iran has executed a customs contractor for corruption, and three customs employees have been sentenced to death, the judiciary said today.
A judiciary spokesman said the three customs employees at Tehran's Mehrabad airport and one contractor were sentenced to death for "office corruption and other economic crimes" but did not give details.
He added that the three others had appealed for their sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment and that this was being studied by the judiciary authorities.
"The main thing in their case was receiving a bribe of more than 10 billion rials (about $1.07 million)," the spokesman said.
He said that "disrupting the foreign exchange, monetary or banking system" was punishable by death under Iranian law. Death sentences are usually carried out by hanging in Iran.
It was the latest sign of Iran getting increasingly tough on corruption in the world's fourth-largest oil producer.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 vowing to clamp down on corruption. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has previously also ordered a crackdown on graft.
Earlier this month, the judiciary said an Iranian court sentenced three state gas company managers to 10 years in jail and 74 lashes each for taking bribes totalling 23 billion rials.