The government has said it is probing what happened at Kahrizak in June 2009 and will prosecute anyone involved in wrongdoing. But no one has yet been charged.
Mortazavi, the Tehran prosecutor at the time, is the chief suspect. He ordered many protesters sent to Kahrizak, later explaining that there was no room at Evin prison. But Evin said that was false and there was plenty of room in that prison.
Conditions in Kahrizak were poor and at least three men held there died. Mortazavi said they contracted meningitis in the detention center. But when the body of one of the men was retrieved by his father, the father found his son’s face bashed in and several teeth missing. The father is a prominent figure on the right and he was able to bring the case to public attention and feed concern among conservatives.
Mortazavi is still under investigation and no charges are known to have been filed against him. On Monday, the Tabnak news website said his chief deputy at the time, Heydarifard, had been arrested and was being held at Evin.
Relatives of the three dead youths have long implicated Mortazavi, Heydarifard and a third official in the prosecutor’s office, Hassan Haddad.
They are accused of sending prisoners to Kahrizak knowing they would be beaten and tortured. In something of an oddity, Evin is being held up in this case as the ideal place to be jailed. Heydarifard is said to have signed the order committing protesters to Kahrizak.
Published news reports say Heydarifard was involved in a recent altercation at a service station in Esfahan. He is reported to have tried to jump the queue at the pump to fill his gas tank out of turn. When others waiting in line objected, he pulled out a pistol and fired into the air, the reports said. Police arrived, checked his ID and freed him, the reports said.