Iran’s Judiciary
Prosecutes Activists, Ignores Abusers
Iran Researcher@sepehrifar
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Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi speaks to journalists during a news conference in Tehran April 19, 2009.
| © 2009 Reuters |
It seems that an infamous Iranian prosecutor – someone sentenced to two years in prison for complicity in the death of one person arrested during Iran’s 2009 anti-government protests – has vanished before he could even be arrested. At least, that is what a spokesperson from Iran’s judiciary said on Thursday.
“An arrest warrant has
been issued but they have not found [Saeed Mortazavi] yet,” spokesperson
Hojatol Eslam Mohseni Ejeyi said to a skeptical press gathering.
“Now I do not know how this can be!”
A mind-boggling
comment, as Iran’s judiciary is notorious for condoning arbitrary arrests.
Moreover, intelligence authorities, once led by Ejeyi himself, regularly carry
out abusive arrests of activists.
Saeed Mortazavi’s
disappearance became even less plausible after an Iranian journalist noted
on Twitter that when
she called his cellphone in March, Mortazavi calmly said he was living at home
in Tehran.
Mortazavi’s conviction
dates to Iran’s 2009 contested presidential elections, which led to waves of
protests and the arrest of some 4,000 demonstrators. Three of those arrested –
Amir Javadifar, Mohammad Kamrani, and Mohsen Ruholamini – died in Tehran’s Kahrizak detention
center. A 2010 parliamentary investigation implicated Mortazavi, the Tehran
prosecutor at the time. After years of delay, judicial authorities opened a
criminal investigation into Mortazavi’s role, and last November an appeals
court sentenced him to prison.
Considering Iran’s
abysmal record prosecuting human rights abusers, it would not be surprising
that certain authorities want to shield Mortazavi from facing justice.
Comparisons of
Mortazavi’s sentence with those handed down to peaceful human rights activists
demonstrate the irony. For instance, in May 2015 authorities arrested prominent
human rights defender Narges Mohammadi after she met with
Catherine Ashton, the former European Union high representative for foreign
affairs. In September 2016 a revolutionary court sentenced Mohammadi to 10
years in prison for helping to establish the “illegal group” Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty, a
nongovernmental organization.
For Iran’s judiciary,
apparently, advocating for abolishment of capital punishment is a more serious
offense than overseeing people being tortured to death.
Mortazavi’s two-year
sentence hardly reflects his responsibility for prosecuting dozens of peaceful
activists. But the judiciary has clearly resisted investigating him for other
crimes. The least President Hassan Rouhani, who ran on a promise to protect
citizens’ rights, could do is ensure that at least one convicted human rights
abuser actually ends up behind bars.
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