Tehran’s Hard-Line Prosecutor Moved To State Role, But Little Changes

By Golnaz Esfandiari

ran’s judiciary chief has named hard-line Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi — the man behind mass trials of post-election detainees — deputy prosecutor general.

Officially the move is a promotion for Mortazavi, but legal experts say his power has diminished.

Mortazavi is known as “the Butcher of the Press” because he was the bane of Iran’s independent and reformist publications.

He has ordered the closure of more than 100 pro-reform publications as well as the summoning to court and jailing of journalists and bloggers.

Among them was the New York-based journalist Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, who was jailed in Iran in 2004 with several of his colleagues and forced to make false confessions.

The case’s aim was to implicate reformist figures in spying and other actions that violate Iran’s national security laws. Mortazavi was in charge of the case.

Mirebrahimi tells RFE/RL he was happy to read the news about Mortazavi’s removal as Tehran prosecutor, describing Tehran’s prosecutor’s office as “the jugular vein of the judiciary of the Islamic republic.”

He adds that he believed that as long as Mortazavi was Tehran’s prosecutor, “judicial reforms wouldn’t be possible.”

Another Iranian journalist, Fereshteh Ghazi, says that for Iranian journalists, Mortazavi brings up painful memories — such as the closure of newspapers, imprisonment, the loss of their jobs, and being forced to leave Iran and become homeless.

On August 29, state media reported that the new head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, had appointed Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi to replace Mortazavi. Dolatabadi is said to be less ideological than Mortazavi

A day later it was announced that Mortazavi had been appointed deputy state prosecutor.

Superficial Changes

Prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Seyfzadeh says that Mortazavi will now have less executive power and won’t be making any judicial decisions.

Still, he dismisses the changes as being of little importance. Seyfzadeh says if the system was to change, then Mortazvi should have been held accountable.

“The judicial disciplinary court should have moved to suspend him,” Seyfzadeh says. “He should have been summoned to court to explain the majority of his actions.”

The 42-year-old Mortazavi reportedly played a role in the 2003 death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in a hospital as the results of head injuries she sustained after she had been jailed.

Mortazavi had ordered Kazemi’s arrest while she was photographing a protest in front of Evin prison by the families of detainees.

Mortazavi is described as a cruel and vengeful person who would use psychological pressure and harassment during interrogations. Mirebrahimi says he remembers how Mortazavi indirectly threatened to kill both him and his family.

“I had many encounters with Mortazavi that ranged from positive, in order to force me ‘to cooperate,’ to threats — where he would threaten me and my family and say that we could die in an accident,” he says.

Mortazavi was also reportedly involved in the arrests of dozens of women’s rights activists, workers, peaceful protesters, and reformists after the disputed June 12 presidential election that led to mass demonstrations.

Pawn Of The Regime?

He has often been criticized by independent lawyers and rights activists for lacking independence. Reformist politicians inside Iran had said that Mortazavi should be summoned to court over his role in the death of Kazemi and other issues.

But he was said to be untouchable. Some observers say Mortazavi had the support of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mirebrahimi thinks Motazavi was a pawn of the regime. “I don’t think he was on his own in all he did,” he says. “It’s true that it was personal to some extent. But he had a powerful backer.”

Mirebrahimi says Mortazavi told him several times: “I am one quarter of the country. One fourth of the country’s power is in my hands.” He adds a person cannot say such a thing without having “prominent backers.”

Mortazavi was the head prosecutor in the trial of a number of top reformist figures who have been accused of involvement in planning postelection protests and plotting a “velvet coup.”

Tehran-based lawyer Nemat Ahmadi told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that the removal of Mortazavi and the creation of a special committee to investigate the postelection unrest could have a positive impact on the fate of the prominent reformist detainees.

But Seyfzadeh, from the Center of Human Rights Defenders, is less optimistic. He believes that those in power now are “determined to eliminate the opposition that is from within the establishment, having already sidelined the children of the revolution and the opposition.”

Seyfzadeh thinks the process will go on till “the end,” unless “something else happens.”

A blogger has reacted to Mortazavi’s new appointment by thanking the new head of the judiciary for the reminder that “the Islamic establishment cannot be reformed.”

The blogger writes, “Tehran’s executioner becomes the state executioner!”

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Iran’s opposition calls for inauguration protests

By NASSER KARIMI (AP) –

TEHRAN, Iran — Opposition groups called for protesters to prepare for a new round of street demonstrations Wednesday to coincide with the inauguration ceremony for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The appeals — carried on reformist Web sites and blogs — showed a willingness by protesters to confront the massive security operation expected outside parliament and other areas of the capital Tehran during the swearing in formalities.

Authorities have increasingly dispatched waves of riot police in pre-emptive moves before high-profile events linked to the disputed June 12 elections and its violent aftermath, such as memorials for victims of the unrest.

There were scattered clashes Monday in Tehran after a ceremony where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad’s second term.

Another cause for opposition anger is a mass trial scheduled to resume Thursday for more than 100 people, including many prominent reformist activists and political figures. They are accused of encouraging the protests and challenging the Islamic system.

The trial has brought widespread denunciations from reformists and some powerful conservatives — adding to the rifts within Iran’s leadership over its handling of the most serious domestic upheaval since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In a possible move to address the discord, Iranian authorities said Tuesday they would bring charges against officials — including security forces and judicial members — accused of abusing civilians during the unrest.

The report by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency gave no further details on possible action, but it comes after calls for trials for those suspected of killing of torturing protesters.

In the same vein, Iran’s police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, told state TV late Tuesday that he has fired the head of a detention facility on Tehran’s southern outskirts which was ordered closed by Khamenei late last month.

The head of Kahrizak prison was fired because of “mismanagement,” Moghaddam said. Three guards at the facility were detained on charges of mistreating prisoners, he added without giving further details.

Human rights groups have identified at least three protesters they say died after being detained at Kahrizak, though the reports could not be independently confirmed. Kahrizak appeared to have little role as a detention center before the latest unrest, but many of the detainees are believed to have spent time there.

At least 30 people have died in the unrest that followed the vote, according to figures from a parliamentary investigation. Hundreds have been detained. Human rights groups believe the death toll is likely far higher.

Ahmadinejad’s main conservative election challenger Mohsen Rezaei — who served as commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards — has led the demands for high-level probes into abuses. On Tuesday, he warned that Iran could be moving toward a “religious dictatorship” if the ruling establishment tried to cling to power at all costs, according to a speech posted on reformist Web sites.

The son of Rezaei’s top aide, Abdolhossein Rouhalamini, died in detention. He was arrested during a July 9 protest and taken to a hospital two weeks later where he died within hours. Reformist Web sites said his jaw was broken when his father received his body.

Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, also compared the mass trial and several public confessions to the tactics of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and other authoritarian rulers.

“Why they do such things that the people compare their courts to Stalin’s, Saddam’s and other dictators’ courts and trials?” said Montazeri in a statement posted on his Web site.

He said Islamic teachings say confessions in jail “have no religious or legal validity.”

Several pro-reform blogs and Web sites, including some linked to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, appealed for demonstrators to gather in front of parliament, where Ahmadinejad is to be officially sworn in for a second, four-year term. They also called for protests at main markets in other cities around Iran.

Mousavi and his backers alleged widespread vote rigging and other fraud in Ahmadinejad’s landslide re-election. Many protesters have now broadened their anger toward the wider Islamic leadership, which they claim has trampled rights by supporting the election results and launching blanket crackdowns on dissenters.

But one of the pro-reform candidates, Mahdi Karroubi, insisted he still backs Iran’s Islamic system despite claims that Ahmadinejad’s re-election does not reflect the will of the nation.

“The truth is that the majority of people don’t accept the methods, language and style of governing of Mr. Ahmedinejad. … We do not consider this government to be legitimate,” Karroubi was quoted by the Spanish newspaper El Pais in an interview published Tuesday.

He expressed worry about the “killings and the disturbances” during the street protests, but vowed to maintain pressure on Ahmadinejad.

“We are going to continue protesting,” he was quoted as saying. “We are never going to cooperate with this government. We don’t want to harm it but we are going to criticize its actions. We are not going to help it in any way.”

Many of Tuesday’s protest appeals included instructions to shift the rallies to main squares if the security presence is too strong at the first sites.

They called for key opposition figures — including Mousavi and Karroubi — to join the marches. They gave no immediate statements on plans to attend.