Free Republic

The hangman of Tehran may soon get a taste of his own medicine. Over the last decade, Saeed Mortazavi has jailed dozens of journalists and reformist politicians and was instrumental in squashing the opposition Green Movement after last year's presidential election. He was openly associated with some of the regime's worst post-election abuses. But in August he was stripped of his judicial immunity, and a Tehran prosecutor named him as the lead person accused in the abuses at Kahrizak prison, a notorious detention facility where at least three people were killed and a handful of others claimed they were raped.

An Iranian parliamentary panel said Sunday that Tehran’s prosecutor, an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was responsible for the beating deaths of three imprisoned protesters last summer, state news agencies reported. The panel’s investigative report said the prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, who has since been promoted, was responsible for the violence against protesters in the notorious Kahrizak detention center, where at least three young men, including the son of a former Revolutionary Guards commander, were killed. The allegation was a rare criticism of a senior official involved in the government’s crackdown on the protest movement that erupted in June over disputed...

Hojjatoleslam Sadegh Larijani, the new chief of the judiciary, has fired Saeed Mortazavi, the notorious Prosecutor General of Tehran and of the Revolutionary Court. Larijani has appointed Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi to replace him. Mortazavi was responsible for the arrest and torture of many journalists, young bloggers, human rights advocates, political activists and reformist leaders. He was behind the closure of more than 200 newspapers, weeklies, and monthlies. Mortazavi has been implicated in the death of Dr. Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who was killed while in custody. She was taking photos of the notorious Evin prison when arrested. The attorneys...

The Times June 25, 2009 Jenny Booth and James Hider Saeed Mortazavi: butcher of the press - and torturer of Tehran?Saeed Mortazavi(Photo: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters) The Iranian regime has appointed one of its most feared prosecutors to interrogate reformists arrested during demonstrations, prompting fears of a brutal crackdown against dissent. Relatives of several detained protesters have confirmed that the interrogation of prisoners is now being headed by Saaed Mortazavi, a figure known in Iran as “the butcher of the press”. He gained notoriety for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her...

June 24, 2009 Saeed Mortazavi: butcher of the press - and torturer of Tehran? Jenny Booth and James Hider The Iranian regime has appointed one of its most feared prosecutors to interrogate reformists arrested during demonstrations, prompting fears of a brutal crackdown against dissent. Relatives of several detained protesters have confirmed that the interrogation of prisoners is now being headed by Saaed Mortazavi, a figure known in Iran as “the butcher of the press”. He gained notoriety for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped during her detention in 2003. “The leading...

Saeed Mortazavi, who has reportedly been given the job of pursuing Iranian democracy protesters through the courts, is a formidable hardliner with a decade-long track record of cracking down on reformists. As prosecutor-general of Tehran since 2003 and as a judge before that, he has earned the nickname "the butcher of the press" for ordering the closure of more than 100 newspapers, journals and websites suspected of being hostile to the establishment. He oversaw the arrest and trial earlier this year of Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist sentenced to eight years for spying, and it has been Mr Mortazavi's name...

"TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's judiciary is to launch a fresh clampdown on women it deems are inappropriately dressed and "spreading prostitution," the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. "The ones who spread prostitution and intentionally seek to disturb social and moral security by inappropriate clothing and behaviour will be firmly confronted," Tehran's hardline prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said." ""It has been noticed that some people with an outrageous appearance in public hurt religious feelings and beliefs," he said, adding the crackdown would start on March 6 and continue for a month. "

Mottaki slams Canadian statements as "illogical and illegal" Geneva, June 24, 2006 IRNA Switzerland-Iran-Mottaki Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki lashed out at Canada for its interventionist statements against certain members of the Iranian delegation which is attending the first UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Switzerland, calling them "illogical and illegal." "Canada's track record is well known in the Islamic Republic of Iran. They have committed massive and serious political mistakes since the victory of the Islamic Revolution," Mottaki said in an interview with IRNA in Geneva on Friday. "Canada's (reprehensible) acts include hiding some spies at their embassy...

Ottawa pushes for arrest of Iran chief prosecutor Canadian Press Updated: Fri. Jun. 23 2006 GENEVA — Canada's diplomatic battle with Iran reached a new intensity Friday as the federal government said it is seeking the arrest of a senior Iranian official implicated in the death of a Canadian. The government wants charges brought against Iran's hardline chief prosecutor, who has been tied to the arrest of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian photojournalist tortured and killed in Tehran in 2003. Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed Friday that the government asked German authorities this week to arrest Saeed Mortazavi if he stopped...

Mortazavi: Iran intends to closely cooperate with UN Human Rights Council June 19, 2006 Switzerland-Human Rights-Mortazavi Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi said that formation of the United Nations Human Rights Council is a major development facing world nations and urged governments to attempt safeguard human rights as a necessity of the present age. He told IRNA that the UN Human Rights Council should be strongly supported by all countries, adding that Iran intends to cooperate closely with this newly-founded council. Currently visiting Geneva to attend the first UN Human Rights Council meeting, he added, "The Human Rights Council should be...

PARIS, 24 Dec. (IPS) In its first major social challenge and in continuation of the crackdown of all freedoms in Iran, the new Government under the Islamo-populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrested at least 14 members of the Single Bus Company of Tehran and Suburbs (SBCTS), informed sources reported on Saturday. The order for the arrest, detention and seizure of all documents of the arrested men was issued by Judge Sa’id Mortazavi, the Prosecutor for Tehran and Islamic Revolution Tribunals. A protégé of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, Mr. Mortazavi is better known by the public,...

Tehran, 16 Nov. (AKI) - The sole defendant in the trial for the death of Canadian photo-reporter, Zahra Kazemi in Tehran in July 2003, has been acquitted by an appeals court. The court has absolved Reza Ahmadi, "because the inquiries carried out to date on other accused have not been satisfactory, it is not possible to condemn one of the co-defendants". Kazemi, 54, a Canadian of Iranian origin, was arrested in June 2003 after taking photos of demonstrations outside a Tehran prison. She died in a Tehran hospital on 10 July 2003 after falling into a coma, having received...

Iran police announce ban on wedding celebrations Tue. 30 Aug 2005 Tehran, Iran, Aug. 30 – Iran’s State Security Forces announced in a statement on Tuesday that street-celebrations during weddings were banned and that the police would crack down on any “Joy Caravans” (celebrations in cars). The SSF statement said that such celebrations in the streets caused public disorder. “The State Security Forces would prevent any forms of actions or attempts under the pretext of joy caravans, which disrupt social order and the citizens’ peace, so as to protect the rights of citizens and create peace for individuals and society....

Just over a month ago, Sa'id Mortazavi, the Islamic revolutionary prosecutor in Tehran, agreed to receive the wife of one of the many political prisoners languishing in his jails. The visitor wanted Mortazavi to know that her husband, 46-year-old dissident Akbar Ganji, then in the third week of a hunger strike, was nearing death.... Who is Ganji and what is so special about him? Why has President George W Bush singled him out of countless dissidents in Iran by making a special appeal for his release?... Why is the establishment so afraid of Ganji?... To begin with, he is the...

RSF Urges the European Union to Reconsider its "Constructive Dialogue" with Iran June 08, 2004 Reporters Without Borders rsf.org Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Reza Alijani, editor of the monthly Iran-e-Farda, and laureate of the Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France 2001 press freedom award. He has been detained since 14 June 2003, together with Hoda Saber, one of the bosses of Iran-e-Farda and Taghi Rahmani, of the weekly Omid-e-Zangan. The case is murky in the extreme. Alijani is currently the only Reporters Without Borders laureate who remains behind bars. Initially held in solitary confinement and then...

How Kazemi was Murdered May 22, 2004 The Ottawa Citizen Michael Petrou The murder of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in Iran has been shrouded in denial and speculation -- until now. In exclusive interviews, other dissidents reveal what happened inside Tehran's notorious Evin prison last June. TEHRAN - Heshmatollah Tabarzadi will never forget Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi screaming in a nearby cell. Mr. Tabarzadi, an Iranian political dissident, was arrested last June on the same day as Ms. Kazemi and, like her, thrown in cellblock 209 of Tehran's Evin prison, where Ms. Kazemi would be detained, interrogated and eventually murdered....

THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC CONTINUE CRACKDOWN OF THE PRESS AND JOURNALISTS PARIS 18 Apr. (IPS) The Islamic Republic of Iran added insult to injury last week by awarding the prize of "Merit" and "Best Servant" to Mr. Sa’id Mortazavi, a judge responsible for the closure of more than one hundred newspapers, magazines and publications and the arrest of dozen of leading journalists on the orders of his boss, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i. The decision was greeted with increased concern among Iranian press, scholar and intelligentsia circles seeing in it the regime’s intention to continue crackdown on the press and free expression, already...

MONTREAL (CP) - A Montreal-based photo journalist who died of a fractured skull in an Iranian hospital was beaten about the head with a shoe by a high-ranking Iranian official, the French newspaper Liberation reported Thursday. The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said Said Mortazavi, an official with the ruling Islamic government in Tehran, used his shoe to deliver the blows to Zahra Kazemi. He had apparently been questioning Kazemi, who had been arrested for taking pictures of an Iranian prison. Kazemi fell into a coma and was transported to a detention centre run by revolutionary guards before she was taken...