An investigation by the Iranian parliamentary made available to public last Sunday found a former Tehran prosecutor guilty and liable for the deaths of three anti-government protesters who were put into prison in the Iranian capital after massive protests broke out following Iran’s said-to-be rigged June 2009 elections.

Saeed Mortazavi was the prosecutor for the capital who was responsible for Kahrizak prison during the time of the deaths of the three prisoners last July 2009. Hundreds of protesters were held in custody during immense street protests, which erupted as a result of an election that, according to the opposition, was fraudulent.

The three were just part of the big number of protesters detained by the Iranian police following the nationwide protests over the election results, which showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning by a landslide over his election rival.

“The deaths of the three were the result of four days in custody suffering from beatings in a place without proper food, water or health conditions,” comments Kazem Jalali, spokesman of the investigation.

Mortazavi was said to have led interrogations of a number of anti-government protesters, which led to trials after voting for it in June of last year. In a statement issued by Mortazavi, he claimed that the three prisoners who died suffered from meningitis. After months of investigation, the Iranian judiciary finally concluded that the three protesters were beaten to death contrary to what Mortazavi earlier stated.

A son of the aide of conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei, Abdolhossein Rouhalamini, was one of the three casualties in the Iranian prison. After reports back in August 2009 emerged about the torture that was happening in the Iranian prisons, legal authorities vowed to crack down and punish all those involved and found guilty of these inhumanities.

Mortazavi, who is currently heading a government body tasked in fighting smuggled exports, is the highest ranking government official found guilty so far. The decision to prosecute him, however, is still not final.