Friday , 29 March 2024

Notorious Former Iranian Prosecutor Sentenced To More Than 100 Lashes

RFL/RE – Said Mortazavi, Iran’s notorious former chief prosecutor, has been sentenced to receive 135 lashes for charges related to a corruption trial.


Mortazavi, who played a major role in sentencing opposition activists from Iran’s Green Movement following the disputed 2009 presidential election, was convicted on November 2 in Tehran of “seizing and wasting public funds” when he headed the country’s welfare program.

Mortazavi, 49, can appeal the sentence.

A close ally of hard-line former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, the sentencing is the culmination a huge fall from grace for a man who led Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and the country’s powerful Judiciary from 2003 to 2009, leading the attack against reformists and shutting down opposition media outlets.

Mortazavi was found responsible by parliament for the deaths of three antigovernment demonstrators and was suspended from his job in 2010 and was disbarred in 2014.

Human Rights Watch described Mortazavi in 2010 as a “serial human rights abuser.”

Mortazavi was targeted by U.S. sanctions over “sustained and severe violations of human rights” while chief prosecutor and was linked to the 2003 death in custody of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.

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