Ex-Tehran prosecutor gets 2 years over detention death

A former Tehran prosecutor general has been sentenced to two years in prison over the death in police custody of a detainee back in 2009.

Saeed Mortazavi, who was holding the position from 2003 until 2010, was served with the conviction at Branch 22 of Tehran Province’s Appeals Court over the death of Mohsen Rouholamini.

Mir Majid Taheri, the lawyer for the family of the victim, told Tasnim News Agency on Sunday that the court had announced the sentence earlier in the day. The Appeals Court commuted the sentence from five years to two, the lawyer said.

“The Appeals Court commuted Mortazavi’s sentence over the charge of abetment to murder to two years and the ruling is definitive,” the Tabnak news website quoted Taheri as saying.

Mortazavi’s name surfaced during riots after the June 2009 presidential elections.

In 2010, a parliamentary investigation into the case found Mortazavi responsible for what had happened at the Kahrizak detention center south of Tehran, where those arrested during the riots were said to have been mistreated.

After the report, he was suspended as Tehran prosecutor general and the case remained open for a judicial investigation.