Police have arrested a former Tehran prosecutor general who faces a two-year prison sentence over the death of detainees following the 2009 protests.
Tasnim news agency said Sunday police detained Saeed Mortazavi in a villa in northern Iran near the Caspian Sea.
Mortazavi was sentenced to prison by an appeals court in December. That court found him guilty of “abetting and aiding” in the deaths of protesters arrested after the disputed reelection of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
After the court ruling became public he vanished. “They could not find him despite the arrest warrant,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on April 12.
The report of Mortazavi’s disappearance immediately became a trending topic on social media where many Iranians expressed dissatisfaction with judiciary officials for not having been tough enough on one of their own.
After reports spread that he could not be found, wanted posters printed by activists began appearing in and around Tehran.
IRNA news agency later reported that Mortazavi had been taken directly to Evin Prison in Tehran.
Mortazavi’s lawyer said Sunday that his client is going to ask the judiciary chief to reconsider his case.
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