Iran vice prez summoned over execution comments

A court in Tehran has summoned Iran’s vice president for women’s affairs for “spreading false information”, a judiciary spokesman said today, following her comments about a series of alleged executions.

Shahindokht Molaverdi reportedly said that all the men in a village in Sistan-Baluchistan, a southeastern province bordering Pakistan, had been executed for drug crimes.

Her comments apparently came on February 4 during a discussion about the need to support families of those criminals who were killed, according to Mehr, an Iranian news agency. Molaverdi was quoted as saying that the survivors were potential smugglers.

However, provincial judiciary officials denied Molaverdi’s allegations over the executions.

The officials sent an indictment request to the capital Tehran, which has the authority to trial a vice president, according to the judiciary news service Mizan, which led to the summons.

Molaverdi’s claims “have no basis in truth and are in some way spreading false information and defamation against the province’s judiciary system,” Mohammad Ali Hamidian, a senior judiciary official in Sistan-Baluchistan said in early March, according to Mizan.

“Molaverdi has been officially ordered to appear in the court,” Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie, the judiciary spokesman and deputy chief, today told reporters in his weekly press conference.