In December 2009, a military court charged 11 police officers who allegedly collaborated with the police, with murder over the deaths of demonstrators who have been detained at the Kahrizak prison.25 However the court acquitted of all charges the highest-ranking defendant, General Azizollah Rajabzadeh, who headed Tehran’s police force at the time. 26 Additionally, the court did not examine high-ranking judicial and police officials such as Saeed Mortazavi, then Tehran Prosecutor General, Dehnavi (then Mortazavi’s deputy), Heidarifard (then Mortazavi’s deputy), Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam (then commander of the Law Enforcement Forces), and Ahmad-Reza Radan (then deputy commander of the Law Enforcement Forces).27 The management and supervision of “judicial officers” (commanders, officers, rank-and-file police officers, as well as prison chiefs, prison guards, officials of the Ministry of Intelligence the Basij forces and the Intelligence Organization of the Revolutionary Guards) 28 is the responsibility of the Prosecutor, also responsible for holding regular training courses for judicial officers. 29 The revised Code of Criminal Procedure (2015) does not provide the type of action the Prosecutor is required to take in cases where “judicial officers” are in breach of regulations or in cases of misconduct.30 The recognition of security and intelligence officials as “judicial officers” empower them to take actions such as arrests, detention and investigation. In the absence of adequate laws that clearly define the chain of command and establish effective oversight, the independence of the judicial system is impaired, ultimately enabling security and intelligence bodies to act without accountability.31 The former Tehran Prosecutor General at the time of the 2009 post-elections unrests, Saeed Mortazavi, was subject to the Special Parliamentary Committee investigation in 2010. The Committee found that Saeed Mortazavi was one of the main individuals responsible for the transfer and mistreatment of demonstrators at the Kahrizak prison.32 However, it is two years later, in 2012, that the Iranian authorities opened a criminal case against Saeed Mortazavi, then head of the Iran’s Social Security Organization. 33 The investigation looked into the alleged post-election abuses at Kahrizak prison, where three demonstrators reportedly died as a result of torture and illtreatments.34 In 2018 a court ultimately convicted Saeed Mortazavi for the death of one of the three 25 Human Rights Watch, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/27/iran-bring-notorious-abuser-justice Human Rights Watch, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/27/iran-bring-notorious-abuser-justice# 27 Human Rights Watch, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/27/iran-bring-notorious-abuser-justice# 28 Article 29 Revised Code of Criminal Procedure (2015), as referenced by Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF 29 Article 28, Revised Code of Criminal Procedure (2015), as referenced by Amnesty International, 2016, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF 30 Amnesty International, 2016, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF 31 Amnesty International, 2016, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF 32 Human Rights Watch, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/27/iran-bring-notorious-abuser-justice 33 Human Rights Watch, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/27/iran-bring-notorious-abuser-justice 34 Human Rights Watch, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/27/iran-bring-notorious-abuser-justice# 26 4