Minister of Justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran addressed the national meeting on "Modes and Mechanisms for Asset Recovery"
First row: Minister of Justice Pourmohammadi (3rd right), Ambassador Tejler of Sweden (2nd right), Mr. Alireza Kazemi Abadi, Deputy Minister of Justice on International Affairs (4th right) Second row: Mr. Frederic Brassac, Senior Adviser, SCPC, Ministry of Justice, France (1st left), Mr. Oscar Solorzano, Asset Recovery Specialist, Basel Institute on Governance, Switzerland The national meeting on "Modes and Mechanisms for Asset Recovery, in the framework of the United Nations Convention against Corruption - UNCAC" was held on 25 and 26 January 2015 in Tehran. 
Among invitees were senior national authorities, governmental officials as well as representatives from diplomatic missions to the Islamic Republic of Iran, namely Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
In his opening statement, the Minister of Justice made reference to the World Bank's statistics on acts of corruption, US$ 5 trillion and bribery, US$ 1 trillion and added that although the quoted figures do not indicate the latest developments in each field, however, they are still shocking.
The Minister further stated that while global records illustrate the transition of US$ 20 to 40 billion by corrupted individuals and public officials, the recovered figures are considerably low. He made emphasis on the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran holds a concrete political will in fight against corruption and announced that the national bill on "countering financing of terrorism" may be ratified in the near future. He referred to Prosecutor General Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, Ministry of Justice, Interpol Tehran and national banks as interacting offices on the subject of asset recovery and stated that such events could assist in improving national coordination and exchange of experiences. Mr. Kaveh Moradi, UNODC Iran Deputy Representative referred to the issue of asset recovery as an important part of UNCAC and an ad-hoc global concern among UN member states. He explained that the technical material of the meeting would be centralized on Chapter V of Convention and its relevant articles which would aim to assess national legislative infrastructure and operative mechanisms, studying the model states' (France and Switzerland) legislation with respect to recovery of property and their respective functional methods, as well as identifying and learning the effective key components of successful recovery. The issue of asset recovery under the UNCAC is a particularly important issue for many developing countries where high-level corruption has plundered the national wealth and resources are badly needed for reconstruction and the rehabilitation.
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