Defense Lawyer of Ali Motahari: Those Who Ordered the Attack on My Client in Shiraz Were All Military

Mostafa Torkhamdani, the defense lawyer for Ali Motahari, a representative from Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, announced on Tuesday, October 5, that all those who ordered the attack on Ali Motahari in Shiraz were military personnel, and this case has been referred to the Military Prosecutor's Office in Shiraz for further investigation. According to ISNA news agency, he pointed out the disagreements surrounding his client's case, stating in the Etemad newspaper: "All the defendants in this case were military, and we believed that it should be handled in the Military Prosecutor's Office, but the Military Prosecutor's Office in Shiraz argued that since the first part of the case was handled in the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office, the other part should also be handled there." Nevertheless, according to Mostafa Torkhamdani, the case of the attack on Ali Motahari was referred to the Military Prosecutor's Office in Shiraz after the Supreme Court's opinion confirmed the jurisdiction of the Military Prosecutor's Office in Shiraz to handle it. He further announced that in the initial proceedings in Branch 101 of the Shiraz Criminal Court, six defendants in the case of the attack on Ali Motahari were sentenced to two months in prison and 10 lashes for "disturbing public order, insult, and public destruction," which was suspended for two years. For two other defendants in the case, a sentence of four and a half months in prison and 37 lashes was issued for "insult," which was suspended for one year. According to the report, a student who invited Ali Motahari was fined one million tomans for "aiding in the refusal of university orders and laws," and three managers accused in this case were sentenced to two years of suspension from service, which was also suspended for two years. Ali Motahari's defense lawyer stated that these rulings are not final and are under appeal. Mostafa Torkhamdani further explained that his client's pursuit of this case aims to "root out the offenders who, according to Ali Motahari, act arbitrarily." On March 9, 2015, Ali Motahari was assaulted at Shiraz Airport by "the onslaught of plainclothes forces" and was ultimately forced to return to Tehran. According to this member of parliament, the assailants, while getting into a taxi, "openly and without fear of the law, broke the car windows with stones and sticks." According to ISNA news agency, these individuals also used "pepper spray," which caused respiratory distress for Ali Motahari and resulted in "minor eye damage." Simultaneously, the Ensaf News website reported that some of the attackers on Mr. Motahari were riding "heavy motorcycles," and some of these individuals were "masked." The "heavy motorcycles" mentioned in the Ensaf News report are typically used by military institutions and Basij forces in Iran. Following the attack on Ali Motahari, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the ministers of intelligence and interior to pursue this issue in a letter, instructing them to identify the "lawbreakers" and "behind-the-scenes actors," as well as to hold accountable the security officials of the province who were negligent or at fault in this matter. A few days after the incident, Mohammad Ahmadi, the governor of Fars, announced the identification of the main perpetrators of the attack on Ali Motahari and their referral to judicial authorities. However, the attack on Ali Motahari in Shiraz faced implicit support from some political and religious figures. Among them, Assadollah Imani, the Friday prayer leader of Shiraz, criticized the planning for Ali Motahari's speech at Shiraz University, accusing him of "breaking the sanctity of the guardianship and collaborating with the 2009 sedition movement." Mohiuddin Haeri Shirazi, a member of the Assembly of Experts and former Friday prayer leader of Shiraz, also stated that the attackers on Mr. Motahari were "not thugs and hooligans, but young, prayerful, loyal individuals ready to sacrifice for Islam." In recent years, some of Ali Motahari's positions, including his call for the removal of the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, two candidates protesting the results of the 2009 presidential election, have provoked protests from supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei and some political figures and members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.