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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran suspends judiciary officials over prison deaths |
| 2010-08-23 |
| Iran has suspended three high-ranking judiciary officials over the deaths of anti-government protesters last summer at the notorious Kahrizak jail, Mehr news agency reported on Sunday. "Following an indictment by the Judges' Tribunal, three senior officials at Tehran prosecutor's office were suspended over last year's Kahrizak incidents," Mehr said, quoting an unnamed source. It did not identify the sacked officials. Tehran's feared former prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was held responsible in a parliamentary probe for sending post-vote detainees to Kahrizak, where at least three young men died in custody. Mehr said the ruling to suspend the officials had been issued on August 15. In June a military court sentenced two men to death in connection with Kahrizak deaths of Mohammad Kamrani, Amir Javadifar and Mohsen Ruholamini. The case has caused major embarrassment to the Islamic republic, which after months of denial acknowledged that the deaths at the detention centre were the result of injuries inflicted at Kahrizak. The centre was shut down last July on the order of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following the reports of abuse. Shortly after, Mortazavi was removed from his powerful post to serve in a bureaucratic capacity within the judiciary and also to join the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as counter-smuggling chief. Among the three young men who died of abuse in Kahrizak was Ruholamini, 25, the son of a well-known conservative politician. He was arrested with the two others in street protests against Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election. A fourth protester was also reportedly feared dead after being jailed in Kahrizak, but this has not been officially confirmed. Dozens of people were killed in clashes with security forces in protests which broke out in Iran after Ahmadinejad's June 2009 victory. |
| Posted by:Fred |