A former prosecutor general of Tehran described by activists as a serial human rights abuser has been sentenced to 135 lashes for financial corruption. Saeed Mortazavi, 49, was found guilty of “seizing and wasting public funds” while he ran Iran’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.



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Mortazavi, who was prosecutor general of Tehran from 2003 to 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 Evin prison in 2003.



Tara Sepehri Far of Human Rights Watch said Mortazavi was linked with “the most flagrant human rights abuses committed in recent years”, including “credible allegations of torture and deaths of protesters detained in the crackdown following the 2009 presidential election”.

“While this verdict shows that figures such as Mortazavi are not immune from prosecution for ever, justice should first and foremost prioritise addressing his role in Iran’s darkest recent history,” she said. “Yet, he also should be treated humanely, something that was denied to Iranians during his time as a prosecutor, and not be subjected to corporal punishment or other inhuman treatment.”



The Iranian writer Akbar Ganji, a victim of Mortazavi’s targeting of journalists, told the Guardian the sentencing was a “whitewash”. “It means that he is not being punished. It is not surprising – one could not expect anything else from the Iranian judiciary. Mortazavi is protected by the most powerful people in Iran. He acted on their orders,” Ganji said.



Mortazavi came under scrutiny from the Iranian parliament and judiciary soon after allegations surfaced about his role in the deaths of protesters imprisoned at the Kahrizak detention centre. Mortazavi has since been acquitted of charges relating to this.



Hadi Ghaemi, of the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said: “This sentence is yet another example of rampant impunity in Iran. No justice is being delivered here, given the extent of graft and corruption committed by Mortazavi, and his involvement in the torture and deaths of protesters in custody in 2009. Also, sentencing him to flogging, if meant to demonstrate a serious punishment, is just physical barbarity that does nothing to hold him accountable in any meaningful way.”

Ahmadinejad went to great lengths to protect Mortazavi after the Kahrizak scandal, appointing him head of Iran’s social security organisation, which provides insurance to many government and private employees.



In 2013, Mortazavi’s name was mentioned in the Iranian parliament in a hugely embarrassing public row between Ahmadinejad and the parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani. Ahmadinejad played a secretly filmed tape showing that Larijani’s brother was allegedly trading on his sibling’s influence for personal financial gain in a conversation with Mortazavi. Mortazavi was briefly detained after the incident.



Amnesty International’s Iran researcher, Raha Bahreini, said: “Flogging and other forms of corporal judicial punishment violate international law and cannot be justified in any circumstances.



“Instead of meting out brutal punishments, the Iranian authorities should be abolishing all forms of corporal punishment and conducting an independent, impartial and thorough investigation into Saeed Mortazavi’s alleged involvement in human rights violations, including the deaths, torture and arbitrary detention of dozens of protesters following the disputed presidential election in 2009.”