Pedestrian

From Agh Bahman

The Kahrizak investigations are apparently getting somewhere and names of very high officials are coming up over and over again. Perhaps if Mohsen Rouholamini [the son of a top aid to Mohsen Rezaie] had not been tortured and killed in that prison, the case would not have gotten anywhere anytime soon. Mohsen’s father is an old member of the revolutionary guard and his friends in parliament are carrying on their investigations and they want to find Mohsen’s murderer by any means necessary. The main friend here is Ali Zakani, an MP from Tehran who is following the case and he insists that Radan and Mortazavi [Tehran's police chief and ex-prosecutor general] are directly involved. This Mr. Zakani has a magazine, Panjereh [Window] and in it he offers a chronology of events which led to tortures in Kahrizak. Of course, the piece beings by arguing that people came into the streets illegally and the basij and police reacted to those unlawful acts – but it also goes on to point out that some in the police and the judiciary went beyond the law and must be punished. [send me a note if you want to read the article in Persian or visit Agh Bahman's weblog]

In this chronology, a very high former official in the judiciary is named as one of the guilty. In an interview he gave to Parcham magazine [which reportedly belongs to Ahmadinejad's top aid, Hashemi Samareh], Mortazavi said that he is innocent. And the interviewer [correctly] asks him: “but no one accused you! But now that you mention it, we indeed do have evidence of your involvement which we will publish.” Radan too has reacted to allegations of his involvement.

Another interesting part of this report is an interview with three fathers of torture victims.

This is while the parliamentary investigative committee is to report its findings today (after this was delayed a number of times) and apparently in this report, Mortazavi is named as a guilty party. Of course, I believe that they will read a report full of blank names and “former officials” and finally send two low-level officers to jail and be done with it. But the mere fact that these individuals will be named means that if one day, a fair, just trial is held, their names will be saved and can be brought up again and at least a few pages of documents [proof] will remain.

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This is the link to the BBC report on the article in Panjereh. That’s Mohsen’s dad on the cover.

You may remember that in 1999, when the student dormitories were raided and students beaten, one student lost his eyes and two were reportedly killed [I'm not sure about this] ONE officer was found guilty of “stealing a plastic razor”.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Iranian judiciary.

So the mere fact that they may be willing to name names is an achievement. IF that happens.

And Mortazavi is of no concern to me … I want them to go after the people BEHIND Mortazavi for over a decade.

But that’s too big a dream to dream right now.