Iran International
Iran's Chief Justice Gholamreza Mohseni-Ejei has appointed another cleric and a former court of appeals judge accused of human rights violations as prosecutor general.
The 62-year-old Qom-born Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, like most other Iranian judges, has seminary education and clerical background and his task is to enforce the country’s Sharia-based laws.
Movahedi-Azad’s predecessor, Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri who had held the post since April 2016, was sanctioned by the United States last December for his role in “overseeing the prosecution of protesters” during mass demonstrations last year. Britain also sanctioned Montazeri in January in reaction to the execution of Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian official, on charges of spying for Britain.
Montazeri has now been appointed as the head of the Supreme Court of Justice.
The newly appointed prosecutor-general began his career in the judiciary at the Tehran Province Prosecutor's office at the age of 24, right after the Islamic Republic was established in the early 1980s, and gradually rose to serve as the head of Branch 54 of Tehran Court of Appeal from 2009 to 2015. Since then, Movahedi-Azad has also served as special prosecutor for the clergy, head of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, and head of the Disciplinary Court for Judges.
During his tenure as an appeals judge, Movahedi-Azad was responsible for upholding the harsh sentences passed on many political prisoners convicted by Revolutionary Courts for their role in the 2009 protests that followed a disputed presidential election and other prisoners of conscience.
Movahedi-Azadi is responsible for re-imposing twenty-year prison sentences for seven former administrators of the Iranian Baha’i community in 2011.
The seven Baha’i leaders were accused of espionage, propaganda against the regime and forming an illegal organization [to administer their community], without due process of law. Nevertheless, their sentences were reduced from 20 to 10 years by an appeals court, only for the authorities to reverse the decision.
Justice for Iran, a London-based human rights NGO, which defines its mission as holding perpetrators of serious human rights violations in Iran to account, in 2018 listed Movahedi-Azad as a human rights violator for the upholding the sentences passed on Baha’i citizens.
“Upholding heavy sentences for Baha’is, merely on account of their religious beliefs, and prison sentences for those who protested 2009 elections, lawyers and civil and political activists are some of the instances of Mohammad Movahedi-Azad’s human rights violations,” Justice for Iran said.
At the time, following the lead of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Movahedi-Azadi labelled “protesters” as “rioters” and said the court of appeals had a “very impressive” role in ending the alleged riots.
Beside the Baha’i leaders, Movahedi-Azad upheld heavy sentences for other Baha’i citizens, such as Faran Hesami and her husband Kamran Rahimian, who had been put on trial just for teaching other Baha’is at the Baha’i Online University, because followers of the faith are not allowed to study in public or private Iranian universities.
