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Iran
Focus
 London, Jun. 22 – The participation by Tehran’s notorious chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi at the first session of the United Nations
Human Rights Council in Geneva
has drawn international outrage.
On Wednesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said, “The presence of
Mr. Mortazavi in Iran’s
delegation demonstrates the government of Iran’s complete contempt for
internationally recognised principles of human
rights. The Government of Canada expresses its disgust at the fact that Iran would
choose to include such a person in its delegation to a new UN body intended
to promote the highest standards of respect for human rights”.
MacKay said that by including Mortazavi in its
delegation Tehran
was trying to discredit the UN council.
“Two official Iranian government investigations found that Prosecutor General
Mortazavi ordered the illegal arrest and detention
of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, which led to
her torture and death. He then falsified documents to cover up his
involvement in her case. Mr. Mortazavi has also
been involved in the harsh clampdown on the Iranian press and the arrests of
many Iranian journalists”, the Canadian Foreign Minister said.
In a letter to Luis Alfonso de Alba, the President of the UN Human Rights
Council, Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the opposition National Council of Resistance of
Iran, said that he was shocked and dismayed at Mortazavi’s
presence.
“By all standards, Mortazavi is a criminal against
humanity. His direct involvement in the suppression of all voices of
dissident in Iran
is common knowledge. At the time of Mohammad Khatami’s
presidency, Mortazavi, in his capacity as the Media
Judge, shut down 80 papers close to the ‘reformists’ and was directly
involved in all the crimes of the recent years against the Iranian people. Last
fall, he ordered the implementation of the sweeping ‘Zafar’
plan in Tehran
in which 2,000 young people in different districts were arrested and
imprisoned. In January 2006, he was responsible for a crackdown on the Tehran's transit
workers who went on strike for their overdue wages”, Mohaddessin
said.
“I urge the Human Rights Council to expel this criminal and call on the Swiss
Judiciary issue an arrest warrant for him, so that he is brought before a
competent international tribunal for crimes perpetrated against humanity”, he
added.
Separately, the U.S.-based Mission for
Establishment of Human Rights in Iran
(MEHR IRAN)
said that it was a “mockery of human rights” if Mortazavi
was allowed to attend the council’s current session.
“He is responsible for numerous imprisonment, tortures and executions in Iran
and should be arrested by Swiss judiciary and be tried for crimes against
humanity utilising all available international
avenues including the International Court of Justice, International Criminal
Court and treaties such as Convention Against Torture”, the group said.
On Thursday, François Bugingo, the president of the
press freedoms organisation Reporters Without
Borders (RSF), said “The presence in Geneva of Mortazavi,
a man who was directly involved in the death of Canadian-Iranian
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, is absolutely
unacceptable.
Kazemi was arrested on 23 June 2003 while
photographing the families of prisoners outside Evin
Prison, north of Tehran.
Tortured while in detention, she died from her injuries on 10 July 2003.
“By sending Said Mortazavi as a human rights
delegate to Geneva,
the Iranian government is showing its real face”, Kazemi’s
son, Stephan Hachemi, said.
“Iran continues to be the Middle East’s biggest prison for journalists and bloggers, with 13 jailed last year. Threats,
interrogation, summonses, arrests and arbitrary detention are all on the
increase. Journalists often manage to stay out of prison only by paying very
high bail. The situation has not improved since hardliner Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad took over as president”, RSF said.
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