Tehran (AFP) - Iran has sentenced billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani, reportedly one of the country's richest men, to death, convicting him of corruption after a long trial on accusations he fraudulently pocketed $2.8 billion.

A justice official announced the punishment Sunday, noting that Zanjani, who became notorious for finding ways to channel hard currency from oil sales during the sanctions-ridden era of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2005 to 2013, could appeal.

Zanjani rose to prominence after sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic's banks as punishment for its nuclear programme hit the country's finances hard.

Having taken commissions, he said he was at all times working with the knowledge and backing of Ahmadinejad's government and he boasted in media interviews of his skills and wealth amassed by managing to subvert the banking restrictions.

He said he did so using a web of companies in various countries including the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Malaysia, selling millions of barrels of Iranian oil.

But he was arrested in December 2013, three months after current President Hassan Rouhani took office, having pledged to crack down on corruption.

Zanjani, 41, was convicted of fraud and economic crimes and must repay money to the state as well as face the death penalty, judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie said.

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Iranian tycoon Babak Zanjani was convicted of fraud and economic crimes over oil sales during the lo …

The trial was public, a rarity for such a major case in Iran, and two other accused were also convicted of "corruption on earth", the most serious offence in the Islamic republic, meaning they too will face the death penalty.

"The preliminary court has sentenced these three defendants to be executed, as well as paying restitution to the plaintiff," said Mohseni-Ejeie, adding this was the oil ministry.

They must also pay a "fine equal to one fourth of the money that was laundered", the spokesman said, without specifying the sum.

Zanjani had denied wrongdoing, insisting the only reason the money had not been paid to the oil ministry was that sanctions had prevented a planned transfer from taking place. That claim was disputed in court.

The case follows repeated declarations from Rouhani's government that corruption and the payment of illegal commissions thrived under Ahmadinejad's rule. Other trials are ongoing.

- 'Corrupt parasites' -

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Babak Zanjani's trial was held in public, a rarity for such a major case in Iran (AFP Photo/Megh …

Zanjani told the media that in return for commissions he was tasked with circumventing sanctions to get money back to Iran. He did so at a time of record high oil prices, meaning tens of billions of dollars were at stake.

In October last year, however, Rouhani's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh hit out at the use of middlemen such as Zanjani.

Iranian media have put the tycoon's fortune as high as $13.5 billion, with public opinion split on whether he was indeed helping the government or enriching himself at the country's expense.

Zanganeh and other officials said the latter was the case.

Speaking after Iran concluded a nuclear deal with world powers in July, paving the way for increased foreign activity in Iran's energy sector, the oil minister urged investors to deal directly with the government and avoid third parties.

"We despise the corrupt parasites that want to suck the nation's blood even in this situation," Zanganeh said to loud applause at an industry event in the capital while Zanjani's trial was under way.

"I recommend foreign companies stay away from these corrupt individuals" who know nothing but "deceitfulness".

Zanjani was among Iranian individuals blacklisted under US and European sanctions.

The nuclear deal saw a large part of these sanctions lifted at the beginning of 2016 in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear programme.

Defending the nuclear talks in 2014 before the deal came about, Rouhani said "a small, fringe group is very angry about it because they will suffer losses" and referred to Zanjani as such a person.

In parliamentary elections last month, the president secured his goal of a more moderate parliament, signalling strong public support for the nuclear accord and creating an opening for domestic reforms.

As of 2015, Iran ranked first in the world in natural gas reserves and fourth in proven crude oil reserves, according to energy giant BP

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Surkaw Omar and Rebien Abdullah quit their jobs and spent their life savings to migrate to Europe, only to find crowded asylum camps, hunger and freezing weather. Now back home in northern Iraq, they describe their quest for a better life as a disaster.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of people heading to Europe have no choice but to brave such hardships because they are refugees from places gripped by war, where their lives are in danger. But Omar and Abdullah come from Iraq's northern Kurdish region, which has been largely spared from fighting with the Islamic State group.

They each spent some $8,000 on the trip, much of it on smugglers, only to get stuck in asylum-seekers' camps in Germany and Sweden for months on end, where they say they were given very little food or money.

"It was very bad," Omar, 25, said of the German camp. "Honestly, we were starving there. We ran away because of hunger. They gave us only cheese and tea, and our weekly allowance was 30 euros."

They decided to try their luck in Sweden instead, but that didn't work either.

"When we arrived there, it was winter. It was freezing. They put me in a room with three Syrians. I couldn't speak Arabic and they couldn't speak Kurdish. We were communicating like deaf people," Omar said. After trying Germany one more time, they gave up.

"We said to each other, let's go home. It's better than anywhere else," he said.

They are among what experts say is a growing number of migrants who are returning home because of the difficulty of finding housing and employment in Europe.

Some 70,000 Iraqis joined the tide of refugees and migrants seeking a better life in Europe last year, according to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration. The Iraqi Refugees Federation, a local NGO, says the number may be twice as high, with some 40,000 coming from the Kurdish region.

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In this Feb. 24, 2016 image made from AP video, Surkaw Omar, left, and Rebien Abdullah look at photo …

But as winter set in last year, the number of people applying for repatriation with the IOM began to grow, from 100 people a month since the start of the year to 350 in September, 761 in October and 831 in January 2016.

"It is very hard to know what the total numbers are because many of them are returning independently and they blend in with other travelers," said Sandra Black, the Iraq communications officer for the IOM. "But the numbers are significantly increasing."

That may come as welcome news to European countries that have opened their doors to refugees fleeing conflict but say economic migrants should stay where they are. It's also an indication of the mounting difficulties refugees face in Germany and Sweden, which together took in more than a million migrants last year.

"They come back for lack of hope for getting residency in Europe, lack of job opportunities, slow family reunification, and for not finding the housing and living opportunities that they were hoping for," Black said.

"The increasing number of arrivals has created massive pressures on the immigration system in Europe. Applications take longer, and so some of them give up."

Maurizio Albahari, an anthropology professor at Notre Dame University who studies migration to Europe, said a number of European countries are "actively seeking to discourage asylum-seekers from staying, at least indirectly."

He said they do so by making family reunification a more lengthy and difficult process and by having long processing times for newly arrived asylum-seekers.

Of the 4,305 Iraqis who received IOM assistance to return in all of 2015 and January 2016, a third returned to the Kurdish region. The largely autonomous region is safe, and itself has been a major destination for refugees. But the war, along with plunging oil prices, has taken a heavy toll on the local economy.

Omar had worked as a day laborer in restaurants and supermarkets, while Abdullah had driven a taxi, which he sold to help finance his trip. They say their decision to migrate was mainly driven by peer pressure.

"I saw that everybody was leaving and they were saying, 'It's like this and that (in Europe).' But when I went there it wasn't like that at all," Omar said.

"Life in Europe is really hard," Abdullah said. "You have to wait. And we couldn't wait. We couldn't wait because we were so attached and loyal to our land, our families, to our mothers and relatives. And honestly, Europe and a residency card are not worth leaving your family and risking your life for."

Soran Omar, head of the human rights committee in the Kurdish regional parliament, said their experience is not uncommon.

"We told the deputy speaker of the German parliament, who was here recently, that even the people displaced from Fallujah and Ramadi were living in better conditions here in Kurdistan than the refugees in Germany now," he said.

But he said the greater exodus from the region shows no sign of slowing down.

"A lot of people may be coming back. But the opposite current is much, much bigger," he said. "People here have nothing to lose. We think this year will be the year of migration."

BRITTANY GREESON FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Imam Hassan Qazwini spoke to a congregation about the upcoming presidential primary in Michigan.

By Tracy Jan GLOBE STAFF MARCH 07, 2016

DEARBORN, Mich. — The imam’s words poured out in slow, deliberate English, his message as clear as the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the green-domed mosque.

Vote, he told the congregation populated mostly by Iraqi Muslims. It is their “moral duty” to be heard in Michigan’s presidential primary Tuesday, said the cleric during last Friday’s afternoon prayer service.

He did not specify for whom — other than “not a Republican,” least of all, Donald Trump.

The large Muslim community in this diverse Detroit suburb, home to Ford Motor Co. headquarters, has grown increasingly alarmed amid rising Islamophobia many here attribute to Trump’s divisive rhetoric. The GOP front-runner has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country, the surveillance and shuttering of mosques, and the registration of Muslims living in America.

Interviews in recent days with Muslim residents of Dearborn — and participants at a Trump rally a short distance away — showed the deep chasms and resentments that are fueling emotions in this presidential election. Trump has a lead in polls of Michigan Republican primary voters, and Muslims like Hassan Qazwini, the visiting imam at the Az-Zahra Islamic Center just outside Dearborn, are fearful about the message another victory for the businessman would send.

“Not only Muslims should be alarmed,” Qazwini said. “All these freedom-fighting democracy-loving people should be alarmed by the rise of a man like Donald Trump.”

The 52-year-old cleric knows that his words, videotaped to be posted later on YouTube, will echo far beyond the 300 men and women kneeling before him on the plush red carpet. As leader of Dearborn’s Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in the country, until last year, he has had an audience with Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. His

Qazwini compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and accused him of “brainwashing” people with “an agenda based on hatred and bigotry.”

“Inshallah,” he said, using the Arabic term for “God willing,” “I hope the people of this country will heed this warning.”

*  *  *

TRACY JAN/GLOBE STAFF

Ali Harb, 26, is a writer for Dearborn’s Arab American News, which has been the recipient of taunting tweets.

Earlier Friday, 18 miles away at a community college gym in Warren, Trump commanded the attention of thousands of cheering supporters. For 70 minutes straight, he delivered his usual broad-ranging stump speech, jeering at his opponents, bragging about his wealth, and — the crowd favorite — building The Wall along the Mexico border.

Women in flag tank tops danced in the bleachers and waved Trump signs. One voter held a large red mitten-shaped cutout of the state of Michigan with the words “Trump, this mitt loves you,” referencing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s recent denouncement of Trump. A shirtless man in a red tie mimed in the distance.

Ali Harb, a 26-year-old writer for the Arab American News in Dearborn who emigrated from Lebanon 10 years ago, drank in the raucous scene from the middle of the gym floor. Harb had come to his first Trump rally to see for himself how Trump whips up a crowd.

Harb cited a recent state poll that said 61 percent of Michigan Republicans supported Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country. His Muslim friends have begun darkly joking whether internment camps would have hookah and Wi-Fi.

‘They are nice people’ but a ban on Muslims entering the US would be ‘the best thing for everyone right now, to keep us all safe.’

David Girjis, 17, who says he’d support presidential candidate Donald Trump

His newspaper has been the recipient of taunting tweets: “You, your religion, your national origins are EVIL. You don’t belong in this country.” Another said he wanted to go “target shooting” in Dearborn, home to the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the country — some of whom are Christian.

“Trump is a symptom. He’s not the cause of all of this,” Harb said. “He’s simply rallying the forces of hatred and giving them a mainstream American platform.”

As Trump spoke, protester after protester was ejected from the rally — five rounds in all. Their causes? Unclear, for the boisterous crowd quickly drowned out each one by booing and chanting “USA! USA!”

Trump commanded security to “Get ‘em outta here!” He ridiculed the protesters, calling one “meek,” another “stupid.” (The Detroit News later reported that one of the protesters escorted from the rally was a Muslim American who had shouted “Not all Muslims are terrorists!”)

Trump pivoted seamlessly from protests to torture as he touched on the threat of the Islamic State. “They’re allowed to chop off the heads of people but we’re not allowed to waterboard?” he asked voters. They laughed.

In the crowd, 23-year-old Sean Staniec, who cleans ambulances for a living, said he agreed 100 percent with everything Trump says about Muslims. Having Muslims in the country, Staniec said, means “All they’re gonna do is find another World Trade Center and bomb it. There’s gonna be another Boston [Marathon bombing.]”

David Girjis, 17, said he would vote for Trump because “He tells it like it is.” The high school senior attended the rally with about 70 students who had persuaded the principal to give them the day off.

Girjis said that he is friends with a couple of Muslims at school — “They are nice people” — but that a ban would be “the best thing for everyone right now, to keep us all safe.”

Trump has also said Muslims should carry special identification cards and, as recently as Thursday’s GOP debate in Detroit, vowed that if elected president he would abandon the Geneva Convention and kill the wives and children of suspected terrorists.

(He appeared on Friday to back off his proposal to kill terrorists’ families, issuing a statement saying he would be bound by international laws.)

Harb, the journalist, said Muslims are the largest targets of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Harb’s old neighborhood in Beirut was hit by two ISIS suicide bombers in November, in which 43 people died — one day before the Paris attacks that elevated Trump’s vitriol.

“Seeing the bakery where you used to go and get bread every day just soaked in blood and then hearing Trump talk about Muslims, you see that wow, we’re actually getting victimized by both sides,” he said, “by the terrorists and the people who claim to want to fight the terrorists.”

*  *  *

BRITTANY GREESON FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Women listened as Imam Hassan Qazwini spoke during a recent service.

As their imam spoke on Friday, preschoolers cartwheeled freely and played “Duck Duck Goose” at the back of the mosque, next to women dressed in jeans and headscarves as well as those in full-length black abayas.

The children appeared free from the fear their parents say they are feeling, even here in Dearborn where Lebanese restaurants, hookah lounges, and Middle Eastern pastry shops line strip malls.

“There’s a sense of more hate overall. It makes me afraid for my children,” said Maya Mortada, 29, a pediatric nurse practitioner.

Congregants recounted an incident at a Kroger grocery store in Dearborn last year when an Arab-American Muslim man was assaulted by two white men, calling his family terrorists.

Haidar Al-Saadi, a 34-year-old emergency room doctor and father of three, blamed Trump for creating a climate that’s even worse than what Muslim Americans experienced following the Sept 11 terror attacks.

“People came to the US because it’s the land of the free,” Saadi said. “Now people are having second thoughts about traveling freely and being in certain places alone.”

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, attended Friday’s service with his 14-year-old son.

Walid, who is African-American and an imam himself, said mosques are organizing service activities around the state in hopes of changing the public’s attitudes about Islam — if not defeating Trump at the ballot box.

“Racism can’t be legislated away. It’s a disease of the psyche and matter of the heart,” Walid said. “Trump may not actually believe what he’s saying but he’s studied political trends. He’s a businessman and an actor, and he knows how to play the game.”

Tracy Jan can be reached at tracy.jan@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @TracyJan.