Iran`s Majlis confirms receipt of impeachment motion against labor minister

TEHRAN, April 5 (MNA) -- The Majlis Presiding Board confirmed it received the impeachment motion against Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare Minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslami on Wednesday. The parliamentarians who are seeking Sheikholeslami’s removal have cited the appointment of former Tehran prosecutor general Saeed Mortazavi as the director of the Social Security Organization as the reason for their motion to impeach him. The motion has been signed by 19 lawmakers. The minister should appear before the parliament in 10 days as of April 14. A parliamentary report issued on January 10, 2010 blamed Mortazavi for sending 147 inmates, charged with involvement in the political unrest that occurred after the presidential election of June 2009, to the substandard Kahrizak detention center on July 9, 2009. According to the report, despite the fact that officials of Tehran’s Evin prison had announced that the facility had enough space for the detainees, Mortazavi insisted on sending the 147 detainees to the Kahrizak detention center. Three of the detainees died while in the prison. MP Zohreh Elahian said on Wednesday that the lawmakers who have signed the motion plan to refer it to the special council tasked with settling disagreements and regulating relations between the three branches of government, which is chaired by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. “President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced that he agrees that the impeachment motion be submitted to the council tasked with settling disagreements between the administration and the Majlis,” Elahian stated. In addition, MP Hamid Reza Fouladgar said on Wednesday that the initiators of the motion will cancel their decision to submit the proposal to the mediation council and impeach the minister only if Sheikholeslami removes Mortazavi from his post.