Saeed Mortazavi
{{Short description|Iranian conservative politician, former judge and former prosecutor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Saeed Mortazavi
| image = Saeed Mortazavi01.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Mortazavi after a court session (April 2015)
| office = Head of Social Security Organization
| term_start =18 March 2012
| term_end = 18 August 2013
| president = Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
| predecessor = Rahmatollah Hafezi
| successor = Mohammad-Taghi Nourbakhsh
| office2 = Head of the Central Headquarters for Combating Goods and Currency Smuggling
| term_start2 = 16 December 2009
| term_end2 = 14 July 2012
| president2 = Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
| predecessor2 = Gholam-Hossein Elham
| successor2 = Fada Hossein Maleki
| office3 = Deputy to Prosecutor-General of Iran
| term_start3 = 29 August 2009
| term_end3 = August 2010
| appointer3 = Sadeq Larijani
| predecessor3 =
| successor3 =
| office4 = Prosecutor-General of Tehran
| term_start4 = 18 May 2003
| term_end4 = 29 August 2009
| appointer4 = Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
| predecessor4 =
| successor4 =
| office5 = Head of the Islamic Revolutionary Court Branch 1410, Press Special Court
| term_start5 = late 1990s
| term_end5 = early 2000s
| appointer5 = Mohammad Yazdi
| predecessor5 =
| successor5 =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1967|11|26|df=y}}
| birth_place =Taft, Yazd, Iran
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = Iranian
| spouse = Homa Fallah-Tafti
| party =
| alma_mater = University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services
| occupation =
| profession =
| signature =Saeed Mortazavi signature.png
}}
Saeed Mortazavi ({{langx|fa|سعید مرتضوی}}, born 26 November 1967{{cite web | url=https://news.gooya.com/2017/11/post-9014.php | title=آمدنیوز: اصالت غیر ایرانی سعید مرتضوی + سند }}) is an Iranian conservative politician, former judge and former prosecutor. He was the prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, and Prosecutor General of Tehran, a position he held from 2003 to 2009. He has been called as "butcher of the press" and a "torturer of Tehran" by some observers.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6570089.ece Saeed Murtazavi: butcher of the press – and torturer of Tehran?]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Jenny Booth and James Hider, 25 June 2009, The Sunday Times. Mortazavi has been accused of the torture and death in custody of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi by the Canadian government and was named by 2010 Iranian parliamentary report as the man responsible for the abuse of dozens and death of three political prisoners at Kahrizak detention center in 2009. He was put on trial in February 2013 after a parliamentary committee blamed him for the torture and deaths of at least three detainees who participated in the protests against President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's reelection. On 15 November 2014, he was banned from all political and legal positions for life.
Career and actions
Before his prosecutorial appointment, Mortazavi was a judge.
On 18 May 2003, he became prosecutor general of Tehran, a position he held until 29 August 2009. The post had been unfilled for eight years since Iran abolished prosecutors in 1995. In the intervening years, judges performed the prosecutor's role.{{cite news|title=Top Prosecutor|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1 May 2003|url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E4D71F3DF932A35756C0A9659C8B63&scp=3&sq=Saeed+Mortazavi&st=nyt|accessdate=1 May 2008}}
=Death of Zahra Kazemi=
File:Saeed Mortazavi - July 22, 2003.png
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.{{cite news|last=Nazila|first=Fathi|title=Report on Journalist|newspaper=The New York Times|date=23 July 2003|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E0DA143FF930A15754C0A9659C8B63&scp=2&sq=Saeed+Mortazavi&st=nyt|accessdate=1 May 2008}} However, it was subsequently reported that Mortazevi had decided to let a military court perform the investigation.{{cite news|last=Nazila|first=Fatih|title=Canada Recalls Envoy From Iran After Burial of Detained Reporter|newspaper=The New York Times|date=24 July 2003| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01EFDD143EF932A05754C0A9659C8B63&scp=15&sq=Saeed+Mortazavi&st=nyt|accessdate=1 May 2008}} 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. Murtazevi strongly denied the accusations,{{cite news|last=Nazile|first=Fathi|title= Arrests of Dissident Iranians Seen as Hard-Line Retaliation|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 November 2008|url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE2DC1E30F937A35752C1A9659C8B63&scp=7&sq=Saeed+Mortazavi&st=nyt|accessdate=1 May 2008}} 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.{{cite news|last=Reynolds|first=Richard|title=Canada Calls for Arrest of Iranian Official|publisher=NPR|date=27 June 2006|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5514415| accessdate=1 May 2008}}
=Suppression of 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.
In 2004 he was behind the detention of more than 20 bloggers and journalists who were held for long periods and forced to sign "confessions" of their "illicit activities".”Iran’s Press 'butcher' to grill reformists" Ottawa Citizen 25 June 2009
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. At the same time, in state custody.{{cite press release|title= Journalists Receive Death Threats After Testifying|publisher=Human Rights Watch|date=6 January 2005|url= http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/06/iran9948.htm|accessdate=1 May 2008}}{{cite press release|title=Like the Dead in their Coffins: Torture, Detention, and the Crushing of Dissent in Iran|publisher=Human Rights Watch|url= https://www.hrw.org/campaigns/torture/iran/|accessdate=1 May 2008}} Also in 2005, Murtazevi ordered Iran's major ISPs to block access to Orkut and other blogging and social networking websites.{{cite news|title=Murtazavi ordered recent filtering|language=Persian|newspaper=BBC Persian|date=9 January 2005|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/01/050109_a_iran_weblog.shtml|accessdate=1 May 2008}}
On 15 February 2008, it was announced that Mortazavi had banned five Iranian websites that comment on politics and current events. Mortazevi said they were "poisoning the electoral sphere" before Iran's mid-March parliamentary elections.{{cite news|last=Karimi|first=Nasser|title=Iran shuts 5 websites|newspaper=USA Today|date=15 February 2008|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-02-14-2988420128_x.htm|accessdate=1 May 2008}}{{cite news|url=http://www.roozonline.com/2007/07/post_3275.php|title= دادستان تهران: علت پیشرفت من "تقواح" است|date=26 July 2007|accessdate=30 May 2008|newspaper=Roozonline|first=Mazyar|last=Radmanesh|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080602000906/http://www.roozonline.com/2007/07/post_3275.php|archivedate=2 June 2008}}
=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.{{cite news|last=Ghaemi|first=Hadi|title=For Iran, the Man Is the Message|newspaper=The New York Times|date=29 June 2006|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/opinion/29ghaemi.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Saeed+Mortazavi&st=nyt&oref=slogin|accessdate=1 May 2008}} Mortazevi's first official meeting was with the also-controversial Zimbabwe a minister of justice Patrick Chinamasa.{{cite web|last=Alavi|first=Nasrin|title=Tehran's red card to human rights|publisher=Open Democracy|date=23 June 2006|url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-irandemocracy/human_rights_3676.jsp|accessdate=1 May 2008}} 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.{{cite news|title=Mortazavi: Iran intends to closely cooperate with UN Human Rights Council |newspaper=Islamic Republic News Agency |date=20 June 2006 |url=http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0606209078162916.htm |access-date=1 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060702000616/http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0606209078162916.htm |archive-date=2 July 2006 }}
=Student protesters=
In 2009, it was reported that Mortazavi had detained students due to a protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government; the students alleged abuse while in jail.{{cite web|url= http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2007/08/judiciary_orders_students_to_s.html|title=Judiciary Orders Students to Solitary Confinement|date=23 August 2007|accessdate=30 May 2008|work=Roozonline|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080502044406/http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2007/08/judiciary_orders_students_to_s.html |archivedate=2 May 2008}}{{cite news|url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/07/A660AAF8-5B7B-49C9-85FB-47BA92942B83.html|title=Families of Detained Students Describe Abuse in Prison|date=25 July 2007|accessdate=30 May 2008|work=Radio Free Europe|first=Golnaz|last=Esfandiarii}}{{cite web|url= http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11388|title=Iran university students demand release of jailed activists|date=27 May 2007|accessdate=30 May 2008|work=Iran Focus}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://ottawacitizen.com/News/Iran+president+urges+fair+treatment+writers/1513344/story.html |access-date=25 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707034800/http://www.ottawacitizen.com/News/Iran+president+urges+fair+treatment+writers/1513344/story.html |archive-date=7 July 2009 |title=Iran's president urges fair treatment for writers }}
=Arrests of 2009 election protesters=
During the 2009 election dispute across Iran, Mortazavi actively suppressed the demonstrations. He has signed arrest warrants for reformers, such as Saeed Hajjarian, and is believed to be instrumental in the more than 600 arrests nationwide.
In early 2010 the Iranian parliament released a report identifying Saeed Mortazavi as "the main culprit in the scandal" over the Kahrizak detention center. The report stated that 147 prisoners arrested for participating in demonstrations against irregularities in the 2009 election of President Ahmadinejad had been "held in a 70-square-meter room for four days without proper ventilation, heating and food on Mortazavi's orders". Three of the inmates died, including Mohsen Rouhalamini, the son of a "distinguished government scientist."
Mortazavi maintained that the prisoners had "died from meningitis" and that "inoculation kits had been sent to detention centers" to prevent the condition from spreading. This claim was dismissed by an examining doctor, Ramin Pourandarjani, who refused to certify it as the cause of death until he was arrested and forced to do so. Pourandarjani later died mysteriously after being charged with failing to treat the prisoners properly. The report rejected Mortazavi's claim.
The report, however, also "strongly rejected" reports that rape or sexual assault had occurred in prison. Opposition websites have reported rapes at the prison, including the rape of a pro-government photographer, Saeed Sadeghi, which allegedly led to the prison's closing. Sadeghi is said to have been accidentally swept up in the mass arrests and held at Kahrizak, after which he complained to Supreme Leader Khamenei of his treatment. Khamenei later closed the prison.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/10/iran-prisoners-abuse-jail Iran's parliament exposes abuse of opposition prisoners at Tehran jail], Robert Tait, 10 January 2010, The Guardian.
=Deputy prosecutor-general=
On 31 August 2009, Mortazavi was demoted to deputy prosecutor-general – "one of six deputies for prosecutor-general Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i" – by the new judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani. Do observers disagree over whether the post was a promotion to "deputy to the nation's top prosecutor," with "a fancy title and protection from future legal action," or "a demotion" that strips him of powers he had enjoyed, such as the ability to order an arrest or halt to political activities.[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/08/iran-tehran-prosecutor-promoted-into-obscurity.html Tehran prosecutor 'promoted' into obscurity?|31 August 2009]. Retrieved 3 September 2009 Saeed Mortazavi is facing a potential investigation into his conduct of post-vote trials.{{Citation needed|date=September 2009}}
=Task Force Against Smuggling=
In 2010 Mortazavi was appointed head of Iran's Task Force Against Smuggling, shortly after he was discredited by the release of a report by the Iranian parliament naming him as the man largely responsible for the abuse of political prisoners committed in July 2009 by state security forces at the Kahrizak detention center. Some saw the appointment as an example of President Ahmadinejad's loyalty to his "dwindling" band of core supporters.[https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/29/irans_bubble_boys Iran's Bubble Boys] BY GENEIVE ABDO|29 January 2010
=Social Security Organization=
Mortazavi was "head of Iran's Social Security Organization", a presidentially-appointed post.{{cite journal|last=Esfandiari|first=Golnaz|author2=Mohammad Zarghami |title=In Iran, Trials That are Just for Show|journal=The Atlantic|date=27 February 2013|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/in-iran-trials-that-are-just-for-show/273570/|accessdate=27 February 2013}} In January 2013, Iran's parliament successfully "lobbied to have him removed" from this position, but following that, Ahmadinejad reappointed him as head of the organization in a "caretaker role".{{cite news|last=Petersen|first=Freya|title=Subscribe to Freya Petersen on Facebook Add Freya Petersen to your circles Iran: Saeed Mortazavi, ally of Ahmadinejad, released after mystery arrest|url=http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iran/130205/iran-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-Saeed-Mortazavi-notorious-prosecutor-butcher|newspaper=Global Post|accessdate=28 February 2013}}{{cite news|last=Casey|first=Mary|title=Iranian police arrest ex-prosecutor and Ahmadinejad ally|url=http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/02/05/iranian_police_arrest_ex_prosecutor_and_ahmadinejad_ally|date=5 February 2013|newspaper=Foreign Policy|accessdate=27 February 2013}}
Trial
{{Infobox criminal
| name =
| known_for =
| criminal_charge = Unlawful arrest
Filing a false report
| penalty = 2,000,000 Rials fine ($25)
Suspended for life from judicial duties
banned for 5 years from government work{{cite web| title=Iran Judge Behind Three Deaths Fined $25| website=Al-Monitor| date=2 July 2013| url=http://iranpulse.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/07/2313/iran-judge-behind-three-deaths-fined-25/| accessdate=6 March 2015}}
| conviction_status = awaiting trial
| conviction =
| capture_status =
| partners = Ali Akbar Heydarifar
Hassan Zare Dehnavi
| apprehended =
| imprisoned =
| footnotes =
}}
In late August 2010, Saeed Mortazavi and two judges were suspended from office after a judicial investigation into the deaths of three men from torture detained on his orders following the controversial June 2009 presidential election. This stripped him of his immunity as a member of the judiciary.{{cite web|last=Memarian|first=Omid|title=Feared Iranian Prosecutor Falls From Grace|url=http://mianeh.net/article/feared-iranian-prosecutor-falls-grace|work=4 September 2010|publisher=mianeh|accessdate=27 February 2013}} On 5 February 2013 a statement posted on the Tehran prosecutor's website announced Mortazavi's arrest.{{cite news|title=Former Iran prosecutor Mortazavi arrested: statement|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50701684/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411105013/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50701684/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 April 2013|date=5 February 2013|agency=Reuters|accessdate=27 February 2013}} Two days later he was released. No explanation was given for the detention or his release at the time.
The trial of Mortazavi and two co-defendants began on 26 February 2013. Charges against Mortazavi and his former deputy Ali Akbar Heydarifar and former Judge Hassan Zare Dehnavi include unlawful arrest, filing a false report, and assisting in the filing of a false report. "There are conflicting reports on whether the three also face murder charges."{{cite news|last=Esfandiari|first=Golnaz|title=Political Payback Or Justice For Tehran's 'Butcher of the Press'?|newspaper=Radiofreeeurope/Radioliberty |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-mortazavi-trial-political-payback/24914453.html|publisher=RFERL|accessdate=28 February 2013}} On the opening day of proceedings, the presiding Judge—Siamak Modir Khorasani—announced the trial would be held behind closed doors.
The lack of transparency in the trial has been criticized by Shirin Ebadi and others. According to Ebadi,
The accused in this case, particularly former prosecutor Said Mortazavi, received direct orders from officials above him – including the Leader. Therefore, [the authorities] would never dare publicly put him on trial.
According to journalists Golnaz Esfandiari and Mohammad Zarghami and other sources, the trial is "widely seen as an indirect move against Ahmadinejad", since he had "used Mortazavi to bring corruption charges against his political rivals" in the past. The arrest came a day after Ahmadinejad "released a secret video in parliament where Mortazavi allegedly discussed a fraudulent business deal, implicating Iran's highly influential Larijani family".
References
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