Saeed Mortazavi Officially Summoned for Trial

One of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs against Saeed Mortazavi, the former head of Iran's Social Security Organization, announced that his trial session will be held on May 5. Part of Mr. Mortazavi's case relates to complaints from the families of the victims of Kahrizak. According to the state news agency IRNA, Mostafa Turk Hamdani, the plaintiffs' lawyer, reported on Tuesday, April 18, that Branch 79 of the Tehran Criminal Court has summoned him along with Alireza Daqiqi and Peyman Attar, other lawyers for the plaintiffs, as well as a representative from the Social Security Organization, to attend the trial session. According to this lawyer, the summons to attend the court session has also been officially delivered to Saeed Mortazavi and his lawyer. Following the publication of a parliamentary investigation report on the Social Security Organization on December 4, 2013, which accused Saeed Mortazavi of widespread financial misconduct amounting to billions of tomans, Mostafa Turk Hamdani, Alireza Daqiqi, and Peyman Haj Mahmoud Attar filed complaints against Mr. Mortazavi on behalf of several workers. Meanwhile, on Sunday, April 17, five members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly sent an open letter to Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, urging him to expedite the issuance of a ruling against Saeed Mortazavi. In this letter, signed by Alireza Mahjoub, Ahmad Tavakoli, Alireza Zakani, Nader Qazizadeh, and Hossein Dehdashti, it was emphasized that despite 16 months having passed since the case was referred to the judiciary, no 'specific action' has been taken in this regard. At the same time, IRNA reported on Tuesday that Saeed Mortazavi's case consists of three parts, the first of which is related to a ruling overturned by the Supreme Court in the Kahrizak case and its referral to a corresponding branch for re-examination. In the Kahrizak case, the Supreme Court branch confirmed Mr. Mortazavi's permanent dismissal from judicial services and a five-year ban from public service, but objected to the imposed monetary fine. According to previous reports from IRNA, Branch 76 of the Tehran Criminal Court had sentenced Saeed Mortazavi to pay a fine of 200,000 tomans for 'aiding in the preparation of a false report by ordering or encouraging relevant officials to prepare a report addressed to himself.' However, according to this news agency, the 'minimum' fine mentioned for this charge against Mr. Mortazavi under the law is 20,000 tomans, not 200,000 tomans. IRNA also reported that another part of Mr. Mortazavi's case is related to the complaint of the heirs of Mohsen Rouhalamini, one of the victims of the Kahrizak detention center incident, on charges of complicity in murder. Mohsen Rouhalamini, Mohammad Kamrani, and Amir Javadi Far were three young men who were arrested for participating in protest rallies following the 2009 presidential election and lost their lives in the Kahrizak detention center due to 'torture and psychological pressure.'