Assassination Attempt on Saeed Mortazavi Denied

Saeed Mortazavi's lawyer and the director of Tehran's prisons have denied reports of an "assassination attempt" on the former Tehran prosecutor in prison. According to ISNA news agency, Mostafa Mohibi, the director of Tehran's prisons, stated on Tuesday, May 18, that Mr. Mortazavi is in "good health" and that "all published news regarding his situation is not true." Saeed Ayubi, Mortazavi's lawyer, also denied the rumor of an "assassination attempt" on his client in Evin prison in an interview with ILNA news agency. He added, "Mr. Mortazavi contacted his wife about two hours ago, and this news is completely false." Some Telegram channels reported that on the evening of Monday, several prisoners had "hanged Mr. Mortazavi with a noose" and that "his shoulder is also broken." Saeed Mortazavi has been sentenced to two years in prison for complicity in the murder of Mohsen Rouhalamini at the Kahrizak detention center. On Sunday, April 22, Iranian media reported that he was arrested while hiding in one of the cities in Mazandaran province and transferred to prison. In addition to the Kahrizak detention center case, several other cases against Mr. Mortazavi are currently under review in various courts. Meanwhile, Mostafa Torkhamdani, the lawyer representing a group of plaintiffs against Mortazavi, reported on Sunday, May 9, that a sentence of 70 lashes for Mr. Mortazavi in the Social Security Organization case and a six-month prison sentence for issuing an order for "illegal entry" into a member of parliament's home have been confirmed in the appeals court. According to the report of the parliamentary investigation committee into the Social Security Organization, Saeed Mortazavi has been accused of multiple financial violations. The former head of the Social Security Organization is accused of selling part of the factories of the investment company of this organization, Shasta, worth over 50 trillion tomans for one-third of the price and only paying 17 trillion tomans, also by a guaranteed check to Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman. Additionally, after the preparation of the seventh parliamentary investigation report from the judiciary in 2008, the home of Fatemeh Ajarlou, a member of parliament from Karaj and a member of the investigation committee, was searched by order of Saeed Mortazavi, the Tehran prosecutor. Furthermore, according to Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, the Supreme Court has recently allowed for renewed investigations into the case of Saeed Mortazavi regarding the murder of Zahra Kazemi, and this case has been reopened in the criminal court. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian journalist-photographer, was arrested in 2003 outside Evin prison and died shortly after. Her death severely strained relations between Canada and Iran. Following Zahra Kazemi's murder, some websites reported that according to reports from some agencies under the government of Mohammad Khatami, Saeed Mortazavi himself had beaten Zahra Kazemi, but this issue was not mentioned in the final report.