Complainant in Saeed Toosi Case Addresses Ibrahim Raisi: If You Are Truthful About Administering Justice, Investigate This Case Fairly
A complainant in the case of Saeed Toosi, a Quranic reciter close to Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, who is accused of sexual abuse and harassment of teenagers who studied the Quran under him, has written a letter to Ibrahim Raisi, the Head of the Judiciary and a presidential candidate in the 2021 elections, stating that not only has Raisi done “nothing” for a “fair investigation” of Saeed Toosi’s case, but has also given “responsibility to the violators,” and the manner in which the Head of the Judiciary handles this case is “a very good test to prove the truthfulness” of his words, referring to his statements in the first debate about listening to and dismissing criticisms.
According to Ensaf News, he reminded in this letter that the complainants in this case had also written to the Head of the Judiciary two years ago through Mahmoud Sadeghi, a former parliamentary representative, that “our rights have been lost,” but “no action was taken.”
In this letter, emphasizing that “if the judiciary is not reformed in a society, nothing will be reformed,” Ibrahim Raisi has been asked to investigate this case “fairly” to prove “the truthfulness” of his words.
This complainant in the Saeed Toosi case, referring to the Head of the Judiciary’s claim to “combat corruption and break red lines in administering justice,” wrote: “We expected you to deal seriously with Mr. Gholamhossein Esmaili, the spokesman of the judicial apparatus, regarding why the case, which was prepared for a verdict by the respected judges of Branch 56, Messrs. Ahoaraki, Ramezani, and Azhdeh in the appellate court, was removed from the branch and judicial proceedings were suspended for 2 years without reason and illegally in favor of the defendant, causing prolongation of the case.”
According to the letter’s author, after two years, under pressure from some members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Gholamhossein Esmaili gave the case to “two temporary advisors” to issue an “acquittal verdict” for Saeed Toosi, but instead of dealing with him, Mr. Raisi even gave “responsibility to the violator.”
This complainant in the Saeed Toosi case, recounting an experience from the investigator’s misconduct in this case, stated: “We asked Mr. Kiamanesh why he changed his opinion and converted the decision of guilt to prosecution ban. He kept saying I had a religious justification! We asked where a case has a private complainant, what does religious justification mean?! We asked if it were your own child, would you apply religious justification? He said with a gracious smile: I don’t know!”
Mohammad Gandamnezad Toosi, known as Saeed Toosi, a Quranic reciter close to the office of the Supreme Leader, was accused of sexual harassment approximately ten years ago following complaints by parents of young students. Following up by families, the case judge issued a four-year prison sentence for this reciter close to the office of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader in 2015, but ultimately Iran’s judicial system, with the intervention of those close to the office of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, issued an acquittal verdict for Saeed Toosi in December 2017.
Source: DW
