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Iran Drops Charges Against Tehran Prosecutor Over 2009 Protests

One of the photos circulated on social media as part of a campaign that demanded information on the whereabouts of former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi after the Public Prosecution announced his disappearance in April 2018. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
One of the photos circulated on social media as part of a campaign that demanded information on the whereabouts of former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi after the Public Prosecution announced his disappearance in April 2018. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Iran Drops Charges Against Tehran Prosecutor Over 2009 Protests

One of the photos circulated on social media as part of a campaign that demanded information on the whereabouts of former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi after the Public Prosecution announced his disappearance in April 2018. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
One of the photos circulated on social media as part of a campaign that demanded information on the whereabouts of former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi after the Public Prosecution announced his disappearance in April 2018. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

A former Tehran prosecutor convicted in 2009 for his role in the death of detained protesters has been acquitted by Iran’s supreme court.

Thousands of supporters of the reformist leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi took to the streets in 2009 to protest “rigged” presidential elections that favored Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s candidate. The Green Movement lost steam after Mousavi and Karroubi were put under house arrest in February 2011, which continues to this day.

Saeed Mortazavi was one of the security officials who jailed many detainees in Kahrizak prison. Four of the detainees died after reported torture and beatings.

His lawyer, Saeed Ayyoubi, announced the acquittal, saying his client’s record is now clean.

The acquittal took place after the election and inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi as president and Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei as head of the judiciary.

In April 2011, the EU sanctioned both Ejei and Mortazavi, along with 32 security and judicial officials, in connection with the repression of demonstrators.

Mortazavi was released from prison in October 2019 after 17 months on the grounds of “good behavior.”

In December 2017, the Iranian judiciary upheld a two-year prison sentence against him, following his conviction for participating in the murder of Mohsen Amini, one of the detainees in Kahrizak.

State-owned ISNA news agency said a judicial memorandum last month had dropped the accusation of participating in the arbitrary arrest against Mortazavi. The order, in turn, dropped the charge of complicity in murder.

In October 2014, the court dropped the murder charges against Mortazavi. However, he was permanently dismissed from all judicial positions and banned from holding government positions for five years on the charge of unlawful detention.

In April 2015, his case was reopened. He was charged with preparing false reports and complicity in the murder of Amini.

Initially, Mortazavi, an ally of hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was relieved from his post in 2010 over the killing of protesters under torture.

Human Rights Watch described Mortazavi as a “serial human rights abuser.”

Mortazavi is one of the most prominent opponents of former parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, an ally of former President Hassan Rouhani.

He was arrested under pressure from Larijani after Mortazavi leaked an audio recording of a conversation he had with the speaker’s brother. The latter promised him to use the former speaker’s influence to acquire commercial deals.

The timing of Mortazavi’s arrest was viewed as a sign of the deterioration of the relationship between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.

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France Has a New Government, Again. Politics and Crushing Debt Complicate Next Steps

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
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France Has a New Government, Again. Politics and Crushing Debt Complicate Next Steps

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)

France’s president and prime minister managed to form a new government just in time for the holidays. Now comes the hard part.

Crushing debt, intensifying pressure from the nationalist far right, wars in Europe and the Middle East: Challenges abound for President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou after an already tumultuous 2024.

What's wrong with French finances? The most urgent order of business is passing a 2025 budget. Financial markets, ratings agencies and the European Commission are pushing France to bring down its deficit, to comply with EU rules limiting debt and keep France’s borrowing costs from spiraling. That would threaten the stability and prosperity of all countries that share the euro currency.

France’s debt is currently estimated at a staggering 112% of gross domestic product. It grew further after the government gave aid payments to businesses and workers during COVID-19 lockdowns even as the pandemic depressed growth, and capped household energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. The bill is now coming due.

But France’s previous government collapsed this month because Marine Le Pen’s far-right party and left-wing lawmakers opposed 60 billion euros in spending cuts and tax hikes in the original 2025 budget plan. Bayrou and new Finance Minister Eric Lombard are expected to scale back some of those promises, but the calculations are tough.

“The political situation is difficult. The international situation is dangerous, and the economic context is fragile,” Lombard, a low-profile banker who advised a Socialist government in the 1990s, said upon taking office.

“The environmental emergency, the social emergency, developing our businesses — these innumerable challenges require us to treat our endemic illness: the deficit,” he said. “The more we are indebted, the more the debt costs, and the more it suffocates the country.”

How long will this government last? This is France’s fourth government in the past year. No party has a parliamentary majority and the new Cabinet can only survive with the support of lawmakers on the center-right and center-left.

Le Pen — Macron’s fiercest rival — was instrumental in ousting the previous government by joining left-wing forces in a no-confidence vote. Bayrou consulted her when forming the new government and Le Pen remains a powerful force.

That angers left-wing groups, who had expected more influence in the new Cabinet, and who say promised spending cuts will hurt working-class families and small businesses hardest. Left-wing voters, meanwhile, feel betrayed ever since a coalition from the left won the most seats in the summer's snap legislative elections but failed to secure a government.

The possibility of a new no-confidence vote looms, though it's not clear how many parties would support it.

What about Macron? Macron has repeatedly said he will remain president until his term expires in 2027.

But France's constitution and current structure, dating from 1958 and called the Fifth Republic, were designed to ensure stability after a period of turmoil. If this new government collapses within months and the country remains in political paralysis, pressure will mount for Macron to step down and call early elections.

Le Pen's ascendant National Rally is intent on bringing Macron down. But Le Pen faces her own headaches: A March court ruling over alleged illegal party financing could see her barred from running for office.

What else is on the agenda? The National Rally and hard-right Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau want tougher immigration rules. But Bayrou wants to focus on making existing rules work. “There are plenty of (immigration) laws that exist. None is being applied,” he said Monday on broadcaster BFM-TV, to criticism from conservatives.

Military spending is a key issue amid fears about European security and pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump for Europe to spend more on its own defense. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who champions military aid for Ukraine and ramping up weapons production, kept his job and stressed in a statement Tuesday the need to face down “accumulating threats” against France.

More immediately, Macron wants an emergency law in early January to allow sped-up reconstruction of the cyclone-ravaged French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa. Thousands of people are in emergency shelters and authorities are still counting the dead more than a week after the devastation.

Meanwhile the government in the restive French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia collapsed Tuesday in a wave of resignations by pro-independence figures — another challenge for the new overseas affairs minister, Manuel Valls, and the incoming Cabinet.