Attorney General on Ahmadinejad: He Speaks of Defending People's Rights While Having a Collection of Lawlessness

The Attorney General of the country, following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's severe criticisms of the judiciary, stated without naming him: "Someone who has managed the country for eight years, especially during the second four years of his management, speaks of defending people's rights while having a collection of lawlessness and illegal actions." According to Tasnim News Agency, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri referred to the damages, problems, and weaknesses of the judiciary and added: "Dear sir, who managed the country for eight years and has now become an opposition to the judiciary, if you have valid criticisms, please express them." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an interview published on the website 'Dolat Bahar' on Thursday, December 2, criticized Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, and the performance of this branch. He stated: "One of the major violations of the judiciary is that it has handed over prisons to security institutions; they (the judiciary) arrest people and hand them over to the agents! The agent goes and does whatever he wants with them." The former president of Iran added: "If one day there is to be an investigation into the violations committed by judicial officials in the matter of judgment, perhaps as many cases as the total number of judicial cases will be formed; they do not budge from their places! They just sit there and talk." The Attorney General on Sunday referred to the former president of Iran saying: "His identity is filled with opposition to the leadership; sulking and 11 days of house arrest and abandoning the government, kissing the coffin of a heretic, holding the mother of Chavez and kissing her cheeks, insulting religious authorities, lying, and misallocating budgets." He expressed that "we feel sorry for Ahmadinejad" and advised him that "this is not the way unless they have other goals." Mohammad Javad Montazeri pointed out that "the gentlemen are isolated and want to get out of isolation" and said: "The silence of the judiciary does not mean inability to act, and definitely, if the conditions are provided, the judiciary will confront these actions that have no benefit for the people and the nation." He stated: "We want it to be resolved wisely. We are waiting for them to come to their senses and understand that this method is not correct." According to Tasnim, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, on Sunday responded to "some accusations made by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against the judiciary." He said: "Some people, under the pretext of certain cases, question the judicial system to make it seem that the judiciary has deviated from its main path. The collusion of foreign and domestic elements against the judiciary is also noteworthy." The Tehran prosecutor, while announcing that no one denies some problems and deficiencies in the judicial system, called Ahmadinejad's criticisms regarding prison conditions "unfounded" and regarding the performance of the Tehran prosecutor's office in prisons said: "Just last week and in one day, 60 judges and officials from the prosecutor's office met with 3,300 prisoners, and last year, 45,000 visits were made by judges to prisoners, and some deputy prosecutors were reprimanded for not visiting prisons." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, criticizing the conditions of prisons in Iran, said: "Have you ever gone to see the prison? Did you ever go to the court? Did you go to see the prosecutor's office? I don't think they have even read the Constitution, the Islamic Penal Code, the Civil Code, and the Code of Criminal Procedure accurately even once." He called the claim that the judiciary confronts criticism of the judicial system "a baseless claim" and added: "The Press Law has defined the boundary between criticism and insult and defamation with two conditions; constructive criticism is allowed as long as it has logic, reasoning, and avoids insult, humiliation, and destruction." The Tehran prosecutor, in response to the former president's comments about the death of Sattar Beheshti in prison, also stated: "Regarding Sattar Beheshti, the Tehran prosecutor's office provided the most explanations to official authorities. The Tehran prosecutor attended the National Security Council and the Parliament and even communicated the realities related to the incident to Mr. Najjar, the then Minister of Interior, to prevent misinformation, and in this regard, a legal case was formed; the offending officer was prosecuted and released from prison after serving his sentence." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said regarding this matter: "That poor man was handed over (to the agent) and then his corpse was handed over to his family! Someone wrote something on his blog, they took him and issued a 50 million bail, then the agent handed over his corpse." He had pointed out that "in the Supreme National Security Council regarding Sattar Beheshti, I practically had a fight with the head of the judiciary, I yelled at them! I said you committed a crime! Why did you arrest the youth of the people! What is this situation?" Sattar Beheshti, a worker and blogger, was arrested by the Cyber Police on November 9, 2012. He was arrested on charges of "acting against national security through activities on social networks, especially Facebook" and was tortured during interrogation in an unknown location. He died four days after his arrest during interrogation and was buried in Robat Karim cemetery, where he lived. In this context, some of Ahmadinejad's critics ask why he remained silent during his presidency regarding the actions of the judiciary and the crackdowns of 2009. Mahmoud Sadqi, a reformist member of Parliament, also reacted to Ahmadinejad's complaints about the judiciary, saying: "Did Mr. Mortezaei, who was one of Ahmadinejad's closest people, not commit such violations, and was Ahmadinejad unaware of the crimes of Kahrizak?" Saeed Mortezaei, one of the main suspects in the Zahra Kazemi case and Kahrizak detention center, was insisted upon by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be appointed as the head of the Social Security Organization. According to Tasnim News Agency, Saeed Mortezaei has been sentenced to two years in prison for complicity in the murder of Rouhollah Alimi, one of the victims of the Kahrizak detention center incident.