Hossameddin Ashna: We Must Ensure Mortazavi Neither Escapes Nor is Helped to Escape

Hossameddin Ashna, the media advisor to the President of Iran, warned against the possibility of Saeed Mortazavi, the former Tehran prosecutor, escaping following the non-implementation of his prison sentence. On Saturday, April 14, Ashna referred to the fate of Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the former CEO of the National Bank of Iran, who has 'fled Iran,' in a tweet stating, 'We must ensure Mortazavi does not become Khavari; he should neither escape nor be helped to escape.' Ashna's tweet comes two days after a report by the Khorasan newspaper on the remarks of Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, who, during a meeting with students at Mashhad University, responded to a question about the execution of Mortazavi's sentence by saying, 'A warrant for his arrest has been issued, but unfortunately, he has not yet been caught.' The lawyer for the victims' families of Mohsen Rouhalamini, one of the victims of the Kahrizak detention center, also stated that according to the judge in charge of executing the sentence, the original case file of Saeed Mortazavi is not in his possession, and the prosecutor's office is supposed to act on the execution of the former Tehran prosecutor's conviction. Mirmajid Taheri, in response to a question from the Tasnim news agency about the likelihood of Mortazavi fleeing, said, 'When someone has received a definitive sentence and it has been communicated to him but he does not present himself, is there any difference from fleeing?' Mortazavi, who is one of the main defendants in the case of torture and murder of several protesters against the results of the 2009 presidential election, has been sentenced to two years in prison. The ruling in this case was finally issued in December 2017 after years of delay. Three months later, in March, it was reported that an arrest warrant for Mr. Mortazavi had been issued, but this warrant has yet to be executed, leading to further ambiguities surrounding the matter. In this context, Hossameddin Ashna emphasized the need to monitor Saeed Mortazavi and prevent any possible escape, describing him as someone who 'holds many top-secret secrets.' The President's advisor then wrote, 'Without him [Saeed Mortazavi], the judicial history of Iran over more than a decade will remain hidden.' For years, Saeed Mortazavi was also the head of Iran's press court, where he shut down dozens of critical and opposing publications and ordered the arrest and imprisonment of many press activists. One of the controversial cases in which he is considered a main defendant is the case of the murder of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer, who was arrested on his orders. Recently, Ali Younesi, a former Iranian intelligence minister, identified Mr. Mortazavi as the main responsible party for the murder of Zahra Kazemi. However, Mortazavi's two-year conviction is unrelated to this case and only pertains to the Kahrizak detention center case, where he is accused of 'aiding and abetting murder.' He published a note in mid-March stating, 'So far, no summons or invitation has been made to me or my guarantor by the execution of the sentences; therefore, if any action has been taken without following the legal proceedings, I am unaware of it, and it has been done contrary to the law and the usual procedures in executing sentences and legal proceedings.'