NCRI – Iran’s fundamentalist regime has acquitted the infamous former Tehran prosecutor general Saeed Mortazavi of murder charges over the 2009 killing of three detained protesters at a notorious prison he oversaw, the Iranian regime’s state television reported on Wednesday.
His acquittal was blasted by Iran’s main opposition organization, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK).
“Not that anyone had any illusions regarding the clerical regime’s judiciary, but this is a prime case of what can be described as ‘justice, mullah style.’ At the end of the day, as the old Persian saying goes, a knife does not cut its own handle,” said Shahin Gobadi, spokesperson of the PMOI.
The notorious Saeed Mortazavi is despised among the Iranian population for his role in arresting, torturing and murdering dissidents and foreign journalists throughout his time in office. His clampdown on the freedom of the press, which led to more than 120 newspapers being closed down, has earned him the title “butcher of the press” among Iranian people.
Saeed Mortazavi played a direct role in suppressing the 2009 nationwide anti-regime uprising, in particular ordering a number of protestors to be tortured to death. Unable to contain the public outrage at the time, the regime was forced to promise that action would be taken against officials who were responsible for some of the deaths.
As part of the factional feuding among the regime, a probe by the regime’s Majlis (Parliament) in 2010 found Mortazavi responsible for the death under torture of three political activists at the notorious Kahrizak prison a month after their arrest. Mortazavi was suspended as Tehran prosecutor general and the case remained open for a judicial investigation. However, Mortazavi previously was only briefly arrested in 2013 over the Kahrizak case.
The website of the Iranian regime’s state broadcaster on Wednesday quoted Mojtaba Nazari, the lawyer for Iran’s social security fund, as announcing the decision of the regime’s court in the case. Nazari said Mortazavi was sentenced to serve six months in prison over receiving “illegal money” during his time as the head of the social security fund.