Iranian judiciary reports on controversial cases

Gholamhosein Mohaseni Ejei

Iranian prosecutor general Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei held a press conference regarding the latest judiciary cases in the country.

The Prosecutor General referred to various cases from the lock down of the National Trust Party to the case of Saeed Mortazavi, the release of Ali Shakourirad, as well as the situation of the two American and the two German detainees.

Mohseni Ejei announced that despite earlier reports, the office of Mehdi Karroubi’s National Trust party has not been unlocked.

The office of the National Trust Party was sealed following the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and widespread protests against it.

He told reporters today: “According to my inquiries at the office of Tehran’s prosecutor, the office of National Trust Party has not been unsealed. However there may be a petition by the property owner to repossess the property but this does not necessarily mean the office of the National Trust Party is unlocked.”

In the meantime, head of the political parities supervisory board, Assadollah Badamchian told Fars news agency today that the office of the National Trust Party has indeed been unlocked by the authorities.

Badamchian added that the activities of the party will be closely scrutinized by his organization from now on. He claimed the “illegal activities of the National Trust Party in the 2009 sedition led to the sealing of its offices.”

Iranian establishment refers to the protests against the alleged fraud in the elections as “sedition.”

Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei also noted that the case of Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s former prosecutor, is in the initial stages of investigation and there is no indictment as yet.

Late August, Iranian authorities announced that they have suspended three senior judiciary officials, including Saeed Mortazavi, in connection with the Kahrizak Detention Centre crimes.

Kahrizak Detention Centre was used to hold a number of post-election detainees in the summer of 2009 where the detainees were tortured and abused. The centre closed down after the news of the torture and death of at least three detainees under torture leaked out.

The opposition accuses Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s prosecutor at the time, of involvement in transferring detainees to the centre with the knowledge of the practice of torture at this facility.

In another judicial report, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei told reporters that Ali Shakourirad, member of the reformist and currently outlawed political party, Islamic Iran Participation Front, who was arrested last month for 16 days, was released through the “mediation of a member of the Qom clergy.” The Prosecutor refrained from revealing the identity of this cleric.

The spokesman for the judiciary went on to announce that the trial date for the three Americans who were arrested in Iran in summer of 2009 has been postponed.

Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd were arrested in the border regions of Iran with Iraq in July of 2009. Shourd was released on a $500,000 bail and is currently in the US.

The two other Americans are still in Evin Prison. The three are charged with espionage by the Iranian government.

Mohseni Ejei added that the files of the two German detainees have not been sent to trial yet. The two German reporters were arrested in September while they were trying to interview the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman who was sentenced to stoning in Iran.

The German government has called for the immediate release of the two reporters but the Iranian authorities claim the two were not in Iran as reporters and did not have a journalists’ pass.