Saeed Mortazavi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saeed Mortazavi is a prominent Iranian jurist, prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, and current Prosecutor General of Tehran, a position he has held since 18 May 2003.^[1] It had been unfilled for the previous eight years, since Iran abolished prosecutors in 1995. In the intervening years judges performed the prosecutor's role.^[2] Before his prosecutorial appointment, Mortazavi was a judge.

Contents 1 Zahra Kazemi 2 The Press 3 United Nations visit 4 Student protesters 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Zahra Kazemi

Mortazavi is notable for his involvement in the case of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer who died in the custody of Iranian officials in 2003. As a judge, Mortazevi was involved in some unknown capacity in Kazemi's interrogation. He was later assigned to investigate the disputed circumstances of her death,^[3] although it was subsequently reported that Mortazevi had decided to let a military court perform the investigation.^[4] In late 2003, the Iranian Parliament issued a report accusing Mortazavi of trying to cover up Kazemi's death and forcing witnesses to the event to change their stories. Mortazevi strongly denied the accusations,^[5] although the government of Canada continues to claim that not only did Mortazavi order Kazemi's arrest, but he also supervised her torture and was present when she was killed.^[6]

[edit] The Press

Mortazavi is often portrayed in the western media as a symbol of problems within the judicial system of Iran. It has been reported that Iranians call him the "butcher of the press". As a judge he shut down 60 pro-reform newspapers.^[2]

In 2004 he was behind the detention of more than 20 bloggers and journalists whom were held for long periods of time and forced to sign “confessions” of their “illicit activities”.^[7]

In 2005, journalists reported receiving death threats after testifying about their alleged torture at the command of Mortazevi. In a press conference, Mortazevi denied the journalists had been mistreated while in state custody.^[8][9] Also in 2005, Mortazevi ordered Iran's major ISPs to block access to Orkut and other blogging and social networking websites.^[10]

On 15 February 2008, it was announced that Mortazavi had banned five Iranian websites that comment on politics and current events. Mortazevi was quoted as saying they were "poisoning the electoral sphere" in advance of Iran's mid-March parliamentary elections.^[11][12]

[edit] United Nations visit

In 2006, Mortazavi was sent to Geneva as part of the Iranian delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a decision that was met with some criticism at home and abroad, due to Mortazavi's controversial human rights record. Human Rights Watch urged Iran to remove him from the delegation, and other countries to decline to meet with the Iranian delegation until his removal.^[1][13] Mortazevi's first official meeting was with the also-controversial Zimbabwean minister of justice Patrick Chinamasa.^[14] Mortazavi took advantage of his position on the delegation to advocate the right of access to high technology, including nuclear power, for all nations. He also warned the council that it should avoid being manipulated into doing the bidding of powerful states, and that it should investigate human rights abuses perpetrated by western powers, notably human rights abuses in the War on Terror, extraordinary rendition, Islamophobia, criticism of the Islamic dress code and veil, and the suppression of the freedom of speech of Holocaust deniers.^[15]

[edit] Student protesters

In 2008, it was reported that Mortazavi had detained students due to protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government; the students alleged abuse while in jail.^{[12] [12] [16][17]} He has been involved in more contentious cases since then as well. Mortazavi was a prosecutor on the cases of Roxana Saberi, an American-Iranian journalist accused of spying, and Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, whose posts were critical of the establishment.^[18]

During the 2009 election dispute across Iran, Mortazavi has been active in suppressing the protests. He has signed arrest warrants for reformers, such as Saeed Hajjarian, and is believed to be instrumental in the more than 600 arrests that have occurred across the nation.^[19]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Impunity in Iran: The Death of Photojournalist Zahra Kazemi