Former Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi has been summoned for a hearing on Monday April 16 in connection with the death of detainees at Kahrizak prison in 2009.
The attorney for Mohammad Kamrani, one of the election protesters who were killed under torture at Kahrizak Prison, reported that a Tehran court had issued the summons. The judiciary’s spokesman confirmed that Mortazavi has indeed been summoned.
ILNA reports that the Kamrani family has protested against the lack of judicial action in the case against Mortazavi and, therefore, pursued a summons for Saeed Mortazavi.
At least three detainees were killed under torture while in custody at Kahrizak Prison, and Parliament has found Mortazavi, the Tehran prosecutor at the time, guilty of transferring the prisoners to Kahrizak, where he knew they would suffer such abuse.
Mortazavi previously announced that all charges against him had been dropped, but the judiciary denied the statement and has now summoned him to clear up the matter.
Mortazavi was removed from the judiciary after the scandal about Kahrizak hit the media. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad immediately appointed him to head the task force against smuggling and, most recently, Mortazavi was appointed as the head of the Social Security Fund, which sparked the process to impeach the Minster of Labour.
Parliament has challenged Mortazavi’s appointment on the grounds that such a position cannot be trusted in the hands of someone who has charges pending against him.
The signatories to the impeachment motion have announced that if Mortazavi is not removed from the Social Security Fund helm by Sunday, the session to impeach the Minister of Labour will proceed as planned.
Mortazavi was also the prime suspect in the death of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who died in Evin Prison in 2003 while being questioned about taking certain photos.
