Mashaei: The Iranian Judiciary is Accused of Murder Unless Proven Otherwise

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the head of the office of the former Iranian president, criticized the judiciary's approach to the death of Kavous Seyed Emami, a university professor, in relation to the deaths of political opponents in prison. According to 'Dolat Bahar', a website close to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mashaei stated in a note on Wednesday, February 14, that 'when someone dies in prison, the judiciary is responsible and must be held accountable.' He questioned, 'Where in the world does someone act as a spokesperson for the accused and the issue is resolved?! For this reason, the suspicion of a cover-up is strongly present in society.' Kavous Seyed Emami, a professor at Imam Sadiq University and CEO of 'Wildlife Heritage of Parsian', died in the security forces' prison two weeks after his arrest on February 8. Iranian judicial authorities announced his death as a result of 'suicide.' Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, claimed on February 11 that Mr. Emami had committed suicide in Evin prison. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the judiciary spokesperson, also stated on February 12 in response to questions regarding the ambiguities surrounding the 'suicide' of Kavous Seyed Emami and two other protesters from December, that the issue of Mr. Seyed Emami's suicide 'is under investigation to see how it happened.' Mashaei emphasized in his note that 'even if we accept the assumption of suicide, the question still arises as to what actions were taken by the judiciary officials or related agents that forced the detainees to resort to suicide to escape pressure?!' The head of the former president's office added: 'Given the tragic similarity between the situation of a well-known professor and several helpless and innocent young people in the serial death tragedy, on one hand, and the decline in the status and social credibility of judicial authorities and the severe drop in public trust in their statements and behavior on the other hand, it is a great naivety and gross delusion to expect people to accept that detainees, realizing they made a mistake, killed themselves out of extreme sadness and regret.' Mashaei stressed: 'Even if this were the case, the judiciary is still responsible for the deaths of these detained individuals.' The death of Kavous Seyed Emami is the third case reported as 'suicide' in detention following the December protests. Before him, Sina Ghanbari and Vahid Heydari, two detainees from the December protests, lost their lives in Evin and Arak prisons, which judicial authorities claimed were 'suicides.' Mashaei called for the formation of a committee composed of 'fair, pious, precise, clever, and responsible individuals' to investigate the deaths of prisoners. The head of the former president's office stated: 'However, the judiciary does not have the competence to arrest and detain the children of the nation until the situation is determined and the truth is known, because at the very least, it lacks the competence to protect individuals' lives and, according to its own confession, is unable to prevent their suicides.' Mashaei further said: 'The responsible agents must be stripped of their authority until the facts are determined.' Concurrently with the publication of Mashaei's note, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, also criticized the issue of 'suicides' in prisons, stating that no institution, not even Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is accountable for complaints against the judiciary. Ahmadinejad emphasized: 'The leadership also says that they are not responsible for the performance of the judiciary and other institutions. What should someone who is oppressed in the government do?! Where should they go?! To themselves?! If they were trustworthy, there would be no problem! What recourse is left for the nation?! Where should the people complain about those who oppress them?! This is a fundamental question.' Ahmadinejad and Mashaei have severely criticized the judiciary's performance in recent months. These criticisms come at a time when during Ahmadinejad's eight-year presidency, the suppression of protesters was also accompanied by deaths in prison. Many of his critics particularly emphasize why he remained silent during the protests and suppressions of 2009 against the actions of the judiciary.