September 3, 2021
Saeed Mortazavi, the former Tehran prosecutor convicted in 2017 for his role in the death of detained protesters, has been acquitted by Iran’s Supreme Court, his lawyer announced.
Saeed Mortazavi had served 17 months in prison on conviction for “accessory to murder” before being released two years ago.
He was one of the security officials in charge of suppressing the protests following the disputed presidential elections in 2009 and ordered many detainees to be jailed in Kahrizak prison. Four of the detainees died after reported torture and beating in the prison.
Mortazavi said he sent the men to Kahrizak because Evin Prison was filled, but the warden at Evin testified that was not true. It was widely believed Mortazavi ordered them to Kahrizak because he could control their handling there.
Mortazavi was convicted for his role in the death of one of the four men, Mohsen Ruh-ol-amini. That man’s father was a politically active conservative who refused to be quiet about the case and lobbied hard and long for the prosecution of Mortazavi.
It took eight years, but Mortazavi was convicted in late 2017 and sentenced to two years in jail. He spent 17 months in prison and was released in September 2019.
Mortazavi’s lawyer, Saeed Ayyoubi, announced the acquittal and said his client’s record is now clean, meaning the lifetime ban on his ever again holding public office no longer applies.
Ayyoubi said the Supreme Court ruled that “the charge of accessory to murder was flawed, especially given that two of Mortazavi’s colleagues accused of participating in the crime had been acquitted on all charges. The court ruling also notes that Mortazavi was not found guilty of the charge of illegal arrests and, consequently, the charge of accessory to murder is basically “irrelevant.”
Mortazavi first gained notoriety in the early 2000s for his role in closing several Reformist newspapers while heading the revolutionary court during the Reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami.
Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, died in Tehran’s Evin prison in 2003 in the midst of this crackdown on critical media. The Canadian government said Kazemi was tortured to death and accused Mortazavi of direct involvement. He has denied the accusation.