Motahari's Lawyer: "Multiple Complaints by Ahmadinejad Against Motahari Have Been Dismissed"

The lawyer of Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, announced that multiple complaints filed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former President of Iran, against his client have been dismissed in the second branch of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office. Mostafa Torkhamdani stated on Sunday, July 20, that the presidency had filed 'multiple' complaints against Ali Motahari in Khordad 89 (June 2010), Farvardin 90 (April 2011), and Khordad 91 (June 2012). According to Torkhamdani, the presidency filed complaints following Motahari's remarks about the premeditated disruption of Hassan Khomeini's speech on Khordad 14, 89 (June 4, 2010) during the memorial ceremony for Ayatollah Khomeini. At that time, Motahari accused Ahmadinejad of playing a role in disrupting Hassan Khomeini's speech with his 'divisive' and 'lengthy' remarks. Torkhamdani noted that the second complaint against Motahari was related to his letter to Ahmadinejad regarding the 'special dependency of the President on a specific individual and holding un-Islamic ceremonies at the Vahdat Hall,' while the third complaint concerned a warning to the President about the lowering of women's dress standards to pants and knee-length coats. The lawyer reported that ultimately all three cases were reviewed in the second branch of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office, and a 'suspension order' was issued for all of them, leading to their dismissal. On May 31, 2012, Motahari stated in a speech in Parliament that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, his chief of staff, had 'cleverly' brought the Islamic dress code in society to a point where the standard dress of pants and knee-length coats had become the current situation. He emphasized that 'Ahmadinejad and Mashaei should also consider the second part of their work, which is to satisfy the youth through the establishment of cabarets and nightclubs.' Motahari has been a critic of Ahmadinejad and Mashaei. Following the events of the 2009 presidential election, he repeatedly called for the trial of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, protesting their house arrest. In this context, on July 8, 2014, he mentioned that in a meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic described the crimes of Mousavi and Karroubi as significant and stated that if they were tried, a 'very heavy sentence' awaited them. In December 2014, at Mashhad University, he expressed that he was not convinced by the Supreme Leader's remarks and insisted that house arrest without a judicial ruling is 'oppression.' Motahari has previously stated that opposing the views of the Supreme Leader, except in cases of governmental decree, is 'not an issue.' On Saturday, July 19, he also mentioned in an interview with the Jamaran website regarding recent remarks by Ayatollah Khamenei about the possibility of criticism of the leadership that the Iranian leader had previously expressed similar sentiments, but 'lower security, intelligence, and military ranks do not comply and are, so to speak, hotter than the soup.' Motahari emphasized that these individuals and institutions 'effectively interpret the rule of the jurist as a means to suspend reason and oppose freedom of expression and want to turn the jurist into a deity.' He added: 'During the incident of the attack against me in Shiraz, which was carried out by the order of a military institution, you saw that the justification of the order-givers was that Motahari's opinion on the continuation of house arrest contradicts the Leader's view.' Motahari has previously implied that the attackers in Shiraz in March 2015 and their 'commanders' were affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and his lawyer, Mostafa Torkhamdani, also reported that the 'commanders' of the attack on his client held 'military positions,' and the second part of this case is 'under investigation' in the military prosecutor's office of Fars province.