Iran prosecutor said acquitted in ’09 protester killings

Iranian state television is reporting a former prosecutor in Tehran has been acquitted of murder charges over the 2009 killing of three detained protesters.

Wednesday’s report on the website of state television quoted Mojtaba Nazari, the lawyer for Iran’s social security fund, as announcing the court’s decision in the case involving Saeed Mortazavi. The report says while Mortazavi was acquitted of murder charges, he will serve six months in prison over receiving “illegal money” during his time as the head of the social security fund.

Mortazavi could not be immediately reached for comment.

Mortazavi was an ally of former hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A parliamentary probe in 2010 found Mortazavi responsible for torturing to death the three anti-government protesters in the wake of Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009.

— AP