New Claims by the 'Instigators' of the Attack on Ali Motahari in Shiraz

On Tuesday, May 1, Ali Motahari's lawyer announced that six individuals identified as the 'instigators' of the attack on his client in Shiraz last year claimed they received orders from 'an unknown individual' via 'a special phone' for this action. Mustafa Torkhamdani, Mr. Motahari's lawyer, stated in an interview with ILNA that 'these six individuals claim they received their orders from an unknown person using a special phone' and 'they were instructed to be present at the scene.' According to Mr. Torkhamdani, 'some of these six individuals also claimed that the provincial security council had a resolution regarding this matter, but after investigation, the falsity of this claim was established.' He also reported that the 'instigators' of the attack on his client are free on bail and that this case is currently under investigation at the military prosecutor's office in Shiraz. Ali Motahari has previously hinted that the attackers and instigators of the assault on him at Shiraz Airport on March 9, 2015, were affiliated with the Basij and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but no official has yet confirmed this. In the initial proceedings at Branch 101 of the Shiraz Criminal Court regarding this case, six of the attackers were sentenced to two months in prison and 10 lashes, which was suspended for two years, while two other defendants received sentences of four and a half months in prison and 37 lashes; this sentence was also suspended for one year. Following this, Mr. Motahari's lawyer announced that his client had filed a complaint against the 'instigators' of the attack, all of whom are 'military personnel.' Last year, in December 2016, after Mr. Motahari's speech at the Arbaeen ceremony in Mashhad was canceled, Alireza Rashidian, the governor of Razavi Khorasan, stated that the Mashhad prosecutor's office canceled the vice president's speech based on a letter from the IRGC's intelligence. However, one day later, Ramadan Sharif, the spokesperson for the IRGC, denied the role of this institution in preventing Ali Motahari's speech. Some of Ali Motahari's positions, including his repeated calls for the end of the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the Green Movement, have led to severe protests from supporters of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.