Saeed Mortazavi's Sentence of 70 Lashes Confirmed in Social Security Case

The lawyer representing a group of plaintiffs against Saeed Mortazavi announced that the sentence of 70 lashes for Mortazavi in the Social Security Organization case and a six-month prison sentence for issuing an order for unauthorized entry into the home of a member of parliament have been confirmed by the appeals court. Mustafa Turkhamdani stated on Sunday, April 28, in an interview with ILNA news agency that the sentence against the former CEO of the Social Security Organization for 'illegal appropriation' has been upheld and finalized by the appeals court. According to Turkhamdani, Mortazavi had been sentenced to 70 lashes by the initial court. This lawyer had previously reported in 2016 that Mortazavi was sentenced to 70 lashes for 'illegal appropriation' and 65 lashes for 'negligence in duty.' The court did not accept the charge of 'embezzlement' against Mortazavi in the Social Security case. Meanwhile, Turkhamdani tweeted: 'Regarding the embezzlement charge, given the evidence that has not yet been seen at the investigative and court stages, and the lack of comments from judicial officials, I am compelled to take further action through the investigative court.' He had previously stated that the money Mortazavi gave to members of parliament or government officials was 'withdrawn for his own benefit or others,' which constitutes 'embezzlement,' but the presiding judge believed that 'he did not intend to possess it for himself, and this does not qualify as embezzlement.' Following the publication of the parliamentary investigation report on the Social Security Organization on December 4, 2013, which accused Mortazavi of extensive financial violations amounting to billions of tomans, Mustafa Turkhamdani, Alireza Daghighi, and Peyman Haj Mahmoud Attar filed complaints against Mortazavi on behalf of several workers. According to the parliamentary investigation report, Mortazavi provided gift vouchers and cards to some managers of Ahmadinejad's government and members of parliament, including allocating 50 million tomans in gift cards to Mohammad Reza Rahimi, the first vice president of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The report also accused Mortazavi of selling part of the factories of the Social Security Investment Company, Shasta, worth over 50 trillion tomans for one-third of the price, paying only 17 trillion tomans through a guaranteed check to Babak Zanjani. Additionally, according to several members of parliament and ILNA news agency's report, Mortazavi issued an order to transfer 138 companies of this organization to Babak Zanjani and provided him with five 'guaranteed' checks amounting to 442 billion Japanese yen, equivalent to four million euros. Turkhamdani had previously stated that Mortazavi wrote these checks two billion yen more than the amount agreed upon with Babak Zanjani and 'to the detriment' of the Social Security Organization, and in response to the court's question, he claimed it was 'a visual mistake.' Mortazavi denied the charges of selling Social Security Organization companies to Babak Zanjani. Mustafa Turkhamdani also stated in an interview with Tasnim news agency that the court confirmed a six-month prison sentence for the former Tehran prosecutor for 'unauthorized entry' into the home of a member of parliament. After preparing the seventh parliamentary investigation report from the judiciary, in 2008, the home of Fatemeh Ajrlou, a member of parliament from Karaj and a member of the investigation committee, was searched under the order of Saeed Mortazavi, the Tehran prosecutor. After that, some media reported that the wife of Ms. Ajrlou, who is a judge, had filed a complaint against Saeed Mortazavi. Mortazavi was sentenced to two years in prison for complicity in the murder of Mohsen Rouh-al-Amini in the Kahrizak detention center. On Sunday, April 21, Iranian media reported that he was arrested and transferred to prison while hiding in one of the cities of Mazandaran province.