Iran Focus
London, 02 Feb – A child sexual abuse scandal that was dismissed by the Iranian judiciary because of the defendant’s ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is still being fought by the families of the victims.
The relatives of the victims, who filed a case teacher Saeed Toosi, wrote to 16 members of the Iranian Parliament to ask for help to seek justice after learning that a judge had secretly ruled in favour of Toosi, according to Tehran MP Mahmoud Sadeghi.
Toosi is a close companion of Khamenei’s, his favourite Quran reciter, and even trained Khamenei’s son, the mid-ranking cleric Mojtaba.
During his own investigation, Sadeghi discovered that Toosi had been acquitted by the Appeals Court on January 26, despite being sentenced to four years in prison for spreading corruption and obscenity by a lower court.
Sadeghi said: “Two weeks ago, the families [of the victims] contacted us and said the court had issued its verdict. They were shocked and astonished. We followed it up and interestingly found out that, while the file was not at the Appeals Court, the judge had indeed issued a verdict.”
He said that other MPs were unfortunately not taking the families seriously, even though the fathers of two victims attended a session of the parliament’s Principle 90 Commission two weeks ago asking for help.
Sadeghi said: “They say they don’t have time to look into such cases; therefore, my duty toward the people of my constituency has become much heavier than before.”
The fathers also met with the deputies for the judiciary and the parliamentary affairs of the Islamic Propagation Organization, according to the Sharq report.
Sadeghi had previously tried to help the families of Toosi’s victims by publicizing the parliament’s involvement in the case, as reported by Voice Of America’s Persian service in October 2016.
At the time, Toosi was accused of sexually abusing 19 of his prepubescent Quran students with four plaintiffs confirmed. However, the plaintiffs said that the crime was being covered up by the authorities in order to protect the Regime’s reputation.
Toosi denied the allegations, both of child sexual abuse and of the cover-up, referring to them as “total lies… aimed at discrediting the state’s religious foundations and Khamenei”, whilst claiming to have never been involved in “such sins [or] actions incompatible with chastity”.
At the time, Sadeghi said, “It appears the child-molesting Quran reciter is enjoying the support of individuals who have infiltrated the supreme leader’s office.”
