Former Iranian prosecutor, linked to brutal treatment of prisoners, is sentenced to 135 lashes for corruption

A former prosecutor general of Tehran, described by activists as a serial human rights abuser has been sentenced in Iran to 135 lashes for financial corruption.

Saeed Mortazavi, 49, was found guilty of “seizing and wasting public funds” while he ran the country’s social welfare organisation under the then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his close ally.

On Wednesday, the state-run news website Irib quoted a lawyer as saying Mortazavi had been given 70 lashes for seizing public funds and another 65 lashes for showing negligence in his job and wasting public money. The sentencing has not yet been confirmed by judicial authorities.

Human rights groups said flogging was barbaric and inhuman, but called for him to face justice over his links to the deaths of several prisoners while he was a judiciary official.

Speaking to state-run news agency Irna, the lawyer Mostafa Turk Hamedani said: “We expected a heavier sentence given the accusations he was facing, but although I respect the opinion and the decision of the judge, I am going to file a complaint with the judiciary.” He said Mortazavi had been cleared of embezzlement.

Mortazavi, who was prosecutor general of Tehran between 2003 and 2009, fell from grace because of his links to the deaths in custody of at least three protesters after the disputed 2009 presidential election that gave Ahmadinejad a second term as president.

While in office, Mortazavi tightened controls on the press, closing down 18 newspapers within two days and handing down lengthy jail sentences to protesters and activists. He was linked to the case of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer who died in 2003 .