IRAN: 'BUTCHER OF TEHRAN' TO BE SACRIFICIAL LAMB?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000011

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/01/12
TAGS: PGOV IR PREL
SUBJECT: IRAN: 'BUTCHER OF TEHRAN' TO BE SACRIFICIAL LAMB?

CLASSIFIED BY: Kathleen McGowan, Political Officer, DOS, IRPO;
REASON: 1.4(B),(D)


1. (C) SUMMARY: A January 10 Majlis report placed blame for the
death of three post-election detainees at the South Tehran
'Kahrizak' detention facility squarely on former Tehran Prosecutor
General Saeed Mortazavi, whom the commission also accused of lying
A Majlis 'Special Commission' formed in August 2009 in the wake of
the detainee abuse scandal drafted the report, which was read in
Majlis open session on January 10, one day after Mortazavi began
his new position in the Ahmadinejad Administration as head of an
office to combat smuggling. Despite being long reviled by moderates
for relentless attacks on reformers both during his tenure as a
Tehran judge then subsequently as Tehran Prosecutor General, it is
unlikely that Mortazavi - a regime loyalist with a long history of
doing the leadership's dirty work - will be harshly punished for
his role in detainee abuse. If that is the case, the Majlis move to
publicly shame Mortazavi has little chance of placating
oppositionists' calls for justice. END SUMMARY.



After Months of Silence, Majlis Report Released




2. (SBU) On January 10 The Majlis read in open session and released
the final report of its special commission established in August
2009 to investigate allegations of post-electoral detainee abuse.
The commission came into being following the death of Mohsen
Ruholamini, son of a prominent conservative figure, in Tehran's
Kahrizak detention facility after being arrested for participating
in protests after the disputed June 12 election. When Ruholamini's
father refused to accept the official cause of death, listed as
meningitis, the subsequent consternation among establishment elites
led Supreme Leader Khamenei to close the facility and gave cover to
Majlis members to create the investigatory commission.



Mortazavi in the Cross Hairs




3. (SBU) The 4,000-word report found that three detainees among a
group of 147 demonstrators arrested on July 9 in Tehran died as a
result beating by prison officials and physical neglect. The
commission pinned blame for the scandal squarely on Saeed
Mortazavi, then Tehran's Prosecutor General, finding that he had
directly (and inappropriately) ordered the transfer of the
prisoners to Kahrizak. In addition, the report states that
Mortazavi lied to the Majlis commission on two points: first, that
he sent the prisoners to Kahrizak because Tehran's primary
detention facility (Evin Prison) was full; and secondly that the
three prisoners who died in detention after being beaten and then
denied medical care - Mohsen Ruholamini, Mohammad Kamrani, and Amir
Javadifar - had actually died of meningitis.




4. (SBU) In fact, the report says, testimony and evidence presented
by the director of Evin contradicts Mortazavi's claim that he had
no choice but to send the detainees to Kahrizak, a facility that
was supposed to be restricted to violent offenders. The commission
pointed to the Judiciary's own December admission that the three
men died as a result of beatings in detention as directly refuting
Mortazavi's insistence to the committee that three men died of
meningitis. The panel recommended the Tehran Judiciary
officials(i.e. Mortazavi) be held accountable.



Murder Yes, But Definitely No Rape




5. (SBU) Elsewhere in the report, the Majlis commission concluded
that after an "exhaustive inquiry" into allegations of sexual abuse
at Kahrizak and other detention facilities, to include a "long
meeting" with presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi who first
publicized the charges, the panel was able to "definitively
dismiss" all allegations of sexual abuse of prisoners.

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Timing Is Everything




6. (SBU) After months of inactivity by the Majlis commission, the
report's conclusions were leaked to the press on January 7, which
was also Mortazavi's last day as Deputy Prosecutor General, a
position he received in August 2009 in the midst of the Kahrizak
scandal and after a thirteen-year tenure as Tehran chief
prosecutor. In December, following months of speculation about
Mortazavi's professional fate, President Ahmadinejad appointed to
head up an executive branch office to counter smuggling.




7. (C) COMMENT: The public release of the parliamentary probe
indicates at least some elements of the government are poised to
scapegoat Saeed Mortazavi, long known for doing the regime's dirty
work as Tehran's lead prosecutor. One IRPO contact noted that the
powers that be may have calculated that by sacrificing Mortazavi,
who is well known internationally due to his alleged involvement in
the 2003 beating death of Iranian-Canadian Zahra Kazemi and reviled
by moderate Iranians for his relentless attacks against reformist
politicians and newspapers, the regime hoped to staunch criticism
of its rapidly deteriorating human rights record. Another contact
compared Mortazavi to Saeed Emami, an intelligence official who
became the regime's fall guy for the late-1990s "chain murders" of
Iranian intellectuals and then conveniently committed suicide in
prison.




8. (C) COMMENT (cont.): If offering up Mortazavi was intended to
placate the opposition, early indications suggest the move is too
little, too late. Opposition websites quickly criticized the
Majlis commission for rejecting well-documented rape claims as well
as failing to look into other abuses, such as the November 2009
suspicious death of a young doctor who reportedly witnessed abuse
at Kahrizak. It is too early to predict Mortazavi's ultimate fate.
Long thought to derive his professional impunity directly from
Supreme Leader Khamenei, it is possible that an aggrieved Mortazavi
would become an toxic liability to the regime's leadership. END
COMMENT.
EYRE