The court last week ruled that since Mortazavi was under investigation in the case involving torture and extrajudicial killings at the Kahrizak detention center in 2009, he cannot be appointed to head a state agency. (See last week’s Iran Times, page ten.)
But First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi has brushed that ruling aside and said Mortazavi will remain in office.
Rahimi said the court ruling was invalid because the Social Security Organization is not a government agency and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the court. He did not explain how an organization that comes under the Labor and Welfare Ministry and whose chief is named by the minister of labor and welfare could not be a government agency.
Majlis Deputy Ahmad Tavakkoli was incensed by Rahimi’s position and said that if Mortazavi is not dismissed, the Majlis will move to fire Labor and Welfare Minister Abdol-Reza Shaikholeslami.
The Administrative Court said that any officials who refused to carry out the court’s order could be fined and suspended from their positions for a period of three months to a year.
Tavakkoli also said that if Mortazavi signs any further orders as head of the Social Security Organization, he would be subject to prosecution—although those decisions are made by the Judiciary, not by a Majlis deputy.