Commander Zarei’s group grope for Allah

Michael Rubin is the American Enterprise Instiute resident scholar in foreign and defense policy studies and editor of the Middle East Quarterly. He regularly posts the Iran News Round Up at NRO’s Corner. Michael points out that in the March 12 round up, Ali Alfoneh caught the Iranian variation of the Spitzer scandal involving Commander Zarei, noted by John in “Scandal everywhere.” Michael forwards us the version as reported in the newspaper of Amir Kabir University that adds a few details to the story, with the link to the original:

A week after ousting of Commander Zare’i, Greater Tehran chief of Law Enforcement Forces, the news agency of the Amir Kabir Polytechnical University of Tehran (AUT News) reports that Zare’i was arrested at a “House of Corruption,” the Islamic Republic’s equivalent of a gentleman’s club, along with six ladies. The six ladies say upon raiding the place, Commander Zare’i had asked them to perform a group prayer naked, which explains their state undress at the time of arrest. Commander Zare’i was the supreme enforcer of the “societal security scheme” planned under the Khatami presidency and enforced under Ahmadinejad, aimed at eliminating “moral corruption” and “deviation from the path of salvation” in the Iranian society. Commander Zare’i has dealt harshly with what he calls Arazel va Owbash [Hooligan elements] and in an early interview he told the Iranian press: “35,000 people have been warned by the Law Enforcement Forces, 1,000 people have been summoned to police stations, and 124 people have been delivered to the Judiciary.” AUT News also claims the arrest of Zare’i took place upon direct orders from Shahroudi, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Judiciary, who feared the close friendship between the head of police and Tehran judge Sa’id Mortazavi would lead to freeing of Zare’i. According to AUT News, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the legal proceedings against Zare’i to take place after the parliamentary elections.

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