"Butcher Of The Press" To Probe Iran Protesters

By: Tucker Reals
Topics: World Watch

(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Reports that Iran's ruling regime has put the country's most feared, hard-line prosecutor in charge of interrogating arrested protesters and journalists have raised the ire of human rights groups and the Canadian government.

Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran's prosecutor-general since 2003 and a judge previously, has been implicated by several inquiries in the death that year of a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist who was arrested, tortured and then killed in custody.

"We are deeply concerned by reports that Saaed Mortazavi has been put in charge of the investigation of detained reformist leaders and party officials in Iran," Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Thursday, according to a report in The Canadian Press.

Those concerns will likely be compounded by remarks made during Friday prayers in Tehran by one of Iran's senior clerics. Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Ahmad Khatami warned those behind the recent unrest that they were in violation of Islamic law, and he urged the Judiciary branch to deal with them harshly.

"I call on the officials of the Judicial Branch to deal severely and ruthlessly with the leaders of the agitations whose fodder comes from America and Israel, so that everyone learns a lesson from it," said Khatami, who is a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts.

Mortazavi has earned a reputation in Iran as the "butcher of the press" for shutting down more than 100 newspapers and blogs deemed a threat to the regime.

"The leading role of Saeed Mortazavi in the crackdown in Tehran should set off alarm bells for anyone familiar with his record," Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch told The Times of London.

The Times also reports that Mortazavi was allegedly behind the arrest and three-month detention of American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi earlier this year. Saberi was released and returned home to her family in North Dakota about three weeks ago.

Tucker Reals
Tucker Reals is a senior news editor and overnight site editor for CBSNews.com, based at CBS News' London bureau.

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by cinoti June 26, 2009 8:23 PM EDT: Perhaps, all we in the West can do is, reluctantly accept the Fact
that Iran is intractable, thus leaving the remaining world one option ..
Take out their Nuke development and all of their oil refineries.
And pick up the pieces after they collapse. $200/Brl Oil here we
come! But it will be worth it!; Reply to this comment


by Questionews June 26, 2009 4:51 PM EDT: Don't worry folks! The protesters will only be waterboarded 20 or 30 times. No biggie, they can take it! Those Iranians are alot tougher than Iraqis.; Reply to this comment


by curiously1 June 26, 2009 3:31 PM EDT: by KingSkibo June 26, 2009 10:56 AM PDT
So, you are ok with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq?

Well..Yeah, I am okay with the Iraq occupation. Not only I, the people of Iraq are now happier. So, yep, I'm ok with helping folks in liberating themselves from thuggish governments.; Reply to this comment

by sjc_1 June 26, 2009 2:51 PM EDT

These protesters are brave. We did not see people in the streets over Florida in 2000 because people had faith in the system. After the court ruling they were not so sure anymore.

Reply to this comment


by ToolMangler1 June 26, 2009 3:09 PM EDT: 8 years and a hundred million mistakes later, I still would have taken the shrub over the "AlGorism".. The worst president we ever had is still better than what "might have been"...


by sjc_1 June 26, 2009 6:41 PM EDT: Oh yeah...and you know that how? Al Gore would have investigated the USS Cole, gone after Al Qaeda and never would have invaded Irag based on lies. I would take Al Gore over Dufus 1000 to 1 any day.


by prometheus21 June 26, 2009 2:29 PM EDT: Mortazavi has earned a reputation in Iran as the "butcher of the press" for shutting down more than 100 newspapers and blogs deemed a threat to the regime.

And I always thought western main-stream propaganda was the "butcher of the press".

Case in point, how they group blogs in with their composite tally of more than 100 "newspapers and blogs" "deemed a threat" to the "regime".

And in you didn't even need to go outside the sentence.; Reply to this comment


by vuenbelvue June 26, 2009 2:04 PM EDT: I think that the United States should just print up several hundred billion dollars and put it in a escrow account for the lawyers to defend these poor Iranians. What is a extra few hours of labor to run the presses going to cost? The administration just did that for the Somali's where ever they are from so why not.; Reply to this comment

by curiously1 June 26, 2009 1:31 PM EDT

By definition, the Iranian regime is not considered as "sovereign". Anytime you have 30% of the population rule the other 70% by force, you're not talking "sovereignty" but rather "dictatorship". Canada, as free nation, has every right to question and object to animalistic behavior by these thugs. My hat's off to the Canadians.

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by KingSkibo June 26, 2009 1:56 PM EDT: So, you are ok with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq?


by KingSkibo June 26, 2009 1:19 PM EDT: Why is Canada interfering with Iran? Iran is a sovereign nation and has the right to interview its terrorists.; Reply to this comment


by curiously1 June 26, 2009 1:13 PM EDT: The thugs are doing what they do best and that's being thugs. The question is, will the so called "free world" sit back and watch this mess without at least doing the minimum to object. I said it before and I say again, close the Iranian embassies all over the western world. Kick out their thuggish embassadors. Don't allow these thugs to come in to the U.N and give hateful speeches about the United States. Do whatever you can to discredit these thugs. Treat them like thugs, period !; Reply to this comment


by snowball77 June 26, 2009 12:57 PM EDT: I am sure Israel is waiting for the green light to take out the nuke option in IRAN. I think we should let em do it. The bluster from the fascist Iranian regime should be evidence enough of their intensions are barbaric. We should also check the bluffing North Koreans. It is time for America to stand up against fascists that export weapons to terror groups and our enemies. Why wait until they are ready on their timetable? I see another killing fields in IRAN as the regime hunts down the opposition and murders them.; Reply to this comment