
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri
- Deputy of Parliamentary Affairs of the Ministry of Justice (1989 - 1999)
- Supreme Leaders Special Inspector in the Judiciary (29 Jan 1991 - May 1991)
- First Deputy to the Attorney General (2001 - 2005)
- Advisor to the Head of Judiciary (2005 - 2009)
- Supreme Leader’s Special Inspector in Judiciary (2005 - 2006)
- Head of the Court of Administrative Justice (Aug 2009 - 3 Apr 2016)
- Human Rights Violation: Violation of Bahai minority’s rights ( 10 Feb 2015) read more
- Institution
- Court of Administrative Justice
- Location
- Tehran
- Rights Violated
- Right to education, Right to freedom of religion and belief, Right to non-discrimination
- Description
-
As President of the Administrative Court of Justice, after filing a complaint by a number of Baha'i students deprived of education at the Administrative Court of Justice, he dismissed the complaints and voted to bar Baha'is from studying at the universities.
- Sources
"Branch 1 of the Court of Administrative Justice Voted for the Baha'is ban from academic education", HRANA News Agency, 2014 https://www.hra-news.org/2015/hranews/a-15
- Human Rights Violation: Violation of Bahai minority’s rights ( 10 Feb 2015) read more
- Head of Branch 1 of Revolutionary Court, Tehran (Aug 2009 - 3 Apr 2016)
- Founder of the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces (1988)
- Head of the Special Clerical Court (Aug 2009 - present)
- Attorney General (3 Apr 2016 - present)
- Human Rights Violation: Participation in the suppression of peaceful protests (November 2019) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- (National)
- Rights Violated
- Right to a fair trial, Right to freedom from torture, Right to freedom of association, Right to life
- Description
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, as the Attorney General, played a key role in detaining and prosecuting protesters and overseeing provincial prosecutors during the November 2019 nationwide protest. He also had a key role in preventing the independent and effective investigation into the death of hundreds of protesters in compliance with the state’s positive and procedural obligations.
In contrary to his duties under Articles 290 and 291, Montazeri failed to investigate the operation of law enforcement and other security forces during the crackdown on 2019 protests. He is also responsible for failure to investigate the cause of injuries and allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees of November 2019 protests.
On 23 November 2019, Montazeri visited the Fashafooye Prison where hundreds of detained protesters were kept. Montazeri told the press that ‘all detainees expressed satisfaction with the condition of their detention’. This was said while in the photos published from his visit several prisoners with severe injuries (broken arms and legs) can be seen. This is while the NAJA commander of Tehran had stated that “not even one protester was injured during the protests in Tehran’.
Montazeri is also responsible for authorization of mass detention of dissidents, students, activists and journalists after the crackdown in November 2019. Under his supervision, provincial prosecutors across the country authorised the mass arrest of thousands of citizens on the charges of participating in protests
On 19 Dec 2019, Montazeri accused the protesters of being led by ‘America, Saudi Arabia and Israel’.
- Sources
-
Attorney General: Recent Riots were Certainly led from outside the Country, Tasnim, 19 Dec 2019
- Human Rights Violation: Arresting environmental activists ( Feb 2018) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- Tehran
- Rights Violated
- Right to a fair trial, Right to freedom from torture, Right to life
- Description
-
As Attorney General, he was responsible for detaining and torturing environmental activists. Montazeri is also responsible for the suspicious death of Kavous Seydamami, an environmental activist in prison, and secrecy.
- Sources
Attorney General: Environmental Activists Infiltrated U.S and Israel, Iran International, 29 Nov 2018 https://iranintl.com/en/iran/attorney-general-environmental-activists-infiltrated-us-and-israel
"Strong protest of human rights organizations against the rulings of environmental activists", Deutsche Welle, February 19, 2020
" IRIB interviewed the Attorney General to justify the unusual death of prisoners", Radio Zamaneh, 2018 https://www.radiozamaneh.com/385640
"Airport officials prevented the departure of Kavous Seyed Emami's wife", Radio Zamaneh, 2018
https://www.radiozamaneh.com/385220
"Kavous Seydamami's wife's lawyer: my client is not allowed to leave the country for " security " reason not" judicial "", Iran Human Rights Campaign, 2018
- Human Rights Violation: Violation of Gonabadi Derwish minority's rights ( 19 Feb- June 2018) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- Tehran
- Rights Violated
- Right to a fair trial, Right to freedom from torture, Right to freedom of assembly, Right to freedom of religion and belief
- Description
-
As Attorney General, he is responsible for the detention, torture, and unfair trial of Gonabadi dervishes, a religious minority belonging to Sufism in Iran, and the issuance of long prison sentences for them, as well as the execution of Mohammad Salas. Mohammad Salas, a Gonabadi dervishes, was executed on charges of deliberately running over Basij and law enforcement forces in the so-called Seventh Golestan incident, based on his forced confessions that he repeatedly stated that was obtained under torture.
- Sources
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"Continuation of Temporary Detention of Imprisoned Dervishes and Uncertainty about the Basis of Their Charges", Iran Human Rights Campaign, 2017 https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AA-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%AA-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B4-%D8%B2%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%AE%D8%B5-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A2%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7-%E2%80%93-%DA%A9%D9%85%D9%BE%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82-%D8%A8%D8%B4%D8%B1-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86.pdf
"Issuance of 114 years in prison for 34 imprisoned dervishes", Deutsche Welle, 2017
https://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/daravish.pdf
"The Attorney General attributed the dervishes' protests to foreign states", Radio Zamaneh, 2017
"Mohammad Salas: I was tortured to death", Iran Human Rights Campaign, May 15, 2016
https://persian.iranhumanrights.org/1397/02/i-was-tortured-and-beaten-to-death/
- Human Rights Violation: Murder of Mohammad Raji in prison ( 4 March 2018) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- Tehran
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom from torture, Right to freedom of assembly, Right to life
- Description
-
As the Attorney General, by concealing and preventing an independent investigation he was responsible for the death of Mohammad Raji, a Gonabadi dervishe, in detention and due to the severity of his injuries. Gonabadi dervishes are a religious minority in Iran and belong to Sufism.
- Sources
-
Iranian Dervish Dies After Arrest, Daughter Says, Radio Free Europe, 5 March 2018 https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian-derviush-raji-dies-arrest/29079802.html
- Human Rights Violation: Suppression of protests ( Dec 2017-Jan 2018) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- (National)
- Rights Violated
- Right to a fair trial, Right to freedom from torture, Right to freedom of assembly, Right to freedom of expression, Right to life
- Description
-
As Attorney General, he was responsible for issuing heavy sentences for participants in the 2017-2018 nationwide protests and failure two investigate the use of deadly force against protesters and covering up the deaths of at least two protesters in prison, Sina Ghanbari and Vahid Heydari in prison.
- Sources
"Prosecutor Insists on Suicide and Addiction of Dead Prisoners", Iran Human Rights Campaign, 2017 https://persian.iranhumanrights.org/1396/10/sina-ghanbari-vahid-heydari-death/
"MP Alireza Rahimi's account of Sina Ghanbari's death in prison", Jamaran News Agency, 2017 https://www.jamaran.ir/fa/tiny/news-854349
"Vahid Heydari dies in Arak Detention Center:" He was arrested and beaten and killed and now they are tarnishing his reputation ", Human Rights Campaign, 2017 https://persian.iranhumanrights.org/1396/10/valid-heidari-prison-death-iran-protests/
"Attorney General: Recent events show that the freedom of cyberspace is harmful to us", Radio Zamaneh, 2017 https://www.radiozamaneh.com/374847
"Attorney General's claim:" We "identified" the "main plotters" of the protests ", Radio Farda, 2017 https://www.radiofarda.com/a/montazeri-says-michael-dandrea-behind-iran-unrest/28954988.html
- Human Rights Violation: Violation of Bahai minority’s rights ( 2016) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- (National)
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom of religion and belief, Right to non-discrimination
- Description
-
As Attorney General, he warned against associating with the Baha'i community because of their religious beliefs and threatened legal consequences for associating with Baha'is in order to socially and economically isolate them.
- Sources
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"Attorney General's Warning: Communication with Baha'is Has Legal Consequences," VOA, 2016 https://ir.voanews.com/a/iran-human-rights-justice/3362577.html
- Human Rights Violation: Censoring the Internet ( 3 April 2016-Present) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom of expression
- Description
-
As Attorney General and a legal member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, he is involved in controlling, filtering and censoring the Internet and harassing and prosecuting cyberspace users, preventing free access to information and restricting freedom of expression.
- Sources
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"Attorney General: 16 to 20 thousand telegram channels are filtered every week and it is not enough", Radio Zamaneh, 2016 https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f9-iran-filtering-telegram-channals/28376031.html
- Human Rights Violation: Violation of women’s rights (3 Apr 2016 - present) read more
- Institution
- Attorney General
- Location
- (National)
- Rights Violated
- Right to a fair trial, Right to privacy, Women's rights
- Description
-
As Attorney General, he has been responsible for detaining and harassing women protesting against the compulsory hijab and issuing heavy prison sentences for them.
- Sources
"IRIB interviewed the Attorney General to justify the unusual death of prisoners", Radio Zamaneh, 2017 https://www.radiozamaneh.com/385640
"Attorney General: removing a headscarf is more out of ignorance and deception", BBC Farsi, 2017
- Human Rights Violation: Participation in the suppression of peaceful protests (November 2019) read more