TEHRAN — Iran’s Supreme Court has disbarred a hard-line judge over his role in the death by torture of at least three jailed antigovernment protesters in 2009, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.
Saeed Mortazavi, an ally of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has also been barred from all government positions for five years, ISNA reported late Saturday.
A parliamentary inquiry in 2010 found Mortazavi responsible in the torturing to death of at least three antigovernment protesters detained during mass demonstrations following Ahmadinejad’s disputed reelection in 2009. At the time, he was Tehran prosecutor general and responsible for Kahrizak prison in the Iranian capital.
Mortazavi has rejected the allegations, and ISNA quoted him as saying he was convicted because of ‘‘exercise of opinion and derailing the case from its legal path.’’
The three prisoners, who were detained in the unprecedented protests following Ahmadinejad’s reelection, died in Kahrizak a month after their arrest. The case embarrassed Iranian authorities and ignited fierce criticism of the government.