Mortazavi added, “I have warned you many times not to talk to anyone, nor have any interviews regarding the ward 209 conditions (this is a maximum security section in the notorious Evin Prison run by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MIOS))…” When questioned by the prisoners’ relatives regarding them being under torture, he replied, “Who told you that they were tortured. I am the one who should say who has been tortured and who has not been tortured. You [referring to the families] have not seen real torture yet…They have confessed to their crimes voluntarily.”
At the time of Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, Said Mortazavi, in his capacity as the Media Judge, shut down 80 papers close to the so-called “reformists” and was directly involved in atrocities perpetrated by the regime in recent years against the Iranian people. Two years ago, he ordered the implementation of the sweeping “Zafar” plan in Tehran in which more than 2,000 young people in various Tehran districts were arrested and imprisoned. In January 2006, he was responsible for a crackdown on Tehran’s transit workers who went on strike demanding their overdue wages.
On November 16, 2003, the Canadian government blamed Mortazavi for the death of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who was raped and tortured while in custody in the notorious Evin Prison.
The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organizations and student unions to condemn such atrocities against the imprisoned students and their families and adopt urgent measures to free them.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 26, 2007