TEHRAN– A number of MPs have signed a motion to impeach Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare Abdolreza Sheikholeslami over his decision to appoint former Tehran prosecutor general Saeed Mortazavi as the director of the Social Security Organization. 

 

MP Elyas Naderan made the announcement during a speech at an open session of the Majlis on Wednesday. 

 

However, Mortazavi has not yet been appointed to the post. 

 

A parliamentary report issued on January 10, 2010 blamed Mortazavi for sending 147 inmates, charged with involvement in the political unrest that occurred after the Iranian presidential election of June 2009, to the substandard Kahrizak detention center on July 9, 2009.   

 

According to the report of the parliamentary investigation into the Kahrizak incidents, despite the fact that officials of Tehran’s Evin prison had announced that the facility had enough space for the detainees, Mortazavi insisted on sending the 147 detainees to the Kahrizak detention center, which is located south of Tehran. Three of the detainees died while in the prison. 

 

Kahrizak was a place in which murderers, hooligans and drug traffickers were held.