Iran's Judiciary Spokesman Confirms Arrest of Judge in Kahrizak Case

The spokesman for Iran's judiciary confirmed reports regarding the arrest of Ali Akbar Heydari Far, one of the judges involved in the Kahrizak case, stating that he has two legal cases against him and has been sentenced to 15 years in prison due to three charges in one of the cases. According to the state news agency IRNA, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, on Tuesday, June 30, in a press conference responding to a question about Heydari Far's arrest for 'embezzlement,' mentioned that he has two legal cases, one of which 'has not reached a definitive conclusion.' Mohseni Ejei stated that in another case where a ruling has been issued, he faced 'three charges and severe convictions for each charge,' ultimately resulting in the 'harshest punishment' of 15 years imprisonment being applied to him. According to Article 134 of the new Islamic Penal Code, although a judge issues independent penalties for each crime, in the execution phase, the most severe punishment must be enforced. In recent days, several news sites reported that Ali Akbar Heydari Far was arrested on charges of 'embezzlement' and is imprisoned in Ward 8 of Evin Prison. No report has been published regarding the details of Heydari Far's case. He was an advisor to Saeed Mortazavi during Mortazavi's presidency at the Social Security Organization, but his name was not mentioned as a defendant in the court related to Mortazavi's financial corruption in the Social Security Organization. Heydari Far, along with Saeed Mortazavi and Hassan Zarei Dehnoei (known as Judge Hadad), were defendants in the Kahrizak case, all three being sentenced to permanent dismissal from judicial services and five years of dismissal from government services. However, at that time, the court acquitted Mortazavi of the charges of complicity in the murder of Mohsen Rouhalamini and false reporting in the Kahrizak case. According to official reports, several protesters from the 2009 presidential election were tortured and mistreated in the Kahrizak detention center, with at least four of them, named Mohsen Rouhalamini, Amir Javadi Far, Mohammad Kamrani, and Ramin Aghazadeh Ghahramani, being killed. However, the complaint from the family of Ramin Aghazadeh was not addressed during the proceedings of this case. Heydari Far was also arrested in 2012 following a confrontation with a car driver at a gas station in Isfahan and for firing a gun into the air, but was released shortly thereafter. The judiciary spokesman also announced on Tuesday that six governors, several mayors, and a number of heads of various agencies have been summoned due to 'electoral violations.' Mohseni Ejei did not refer to the details of the cases against these government officials. Abbasali Kadkhodai, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, announced on June 27 that reports of 'electoral violations,' including 'violations' by some government managers, have been sent to the judiciary. Ebrahim Raisi, the main rival of Hassan Rouhani in the presidential elections, has repeatedly accused the eleventh government of committing 'engineered violations' in the elections since the day of the election, citing instances such as 'ballots not being sent to some polling stations,' 'payments to individuals whose subsidies had been cut,' 'payment of long-standing debts to farmers on the night of the election,' 'slandering rivals by the Iran newspaper,' and 'the nomination of the first vice president to defend the government' as examples of 'electoral violations.' In contrast, Hassan Rouhani accused Raisi during electoral debates and speeches of using the resources of the Astan Quds Razavi and other institutions under the Islamic Republic, including the Revolutionary Guards, in the elections. Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic stated that electoral violations did not affect the outcome and called for officials to 'seriously' identify violators so that such violations do not occur in various elections. Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks about 'violations' in the 2017 presidential election come at a time when the leader of Iran and political figures close to him refer to the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election as 'sedition.' The Guardian Council also stated that despite protests regarding the results of the 2009 election, there were no 'major violations' in that election. During the crackdown on protests against the 2009 election results, dozens of protesters were killed, and thousands were detained over several months, with hundreds of them sentenced to long prison terms in mass trials.