[4] He was put on trial in February 2013 after a parliamentary committee blamed him for the torture and deaths of at least three detainees who participated in the protests against President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's reelection.

[8] In late 2003, the Iranian Parliament issued a report accusing Mortazavi of trying to cover up Kazemi's death and forcing witnesses to the event to change their stories.

Murtazevi strongly denied the accusations,[9] although the government of Canada continues to claim that not only did Mortazavi order Kazemi's arrest, but he also supervised her torture and was present when she was killed.

[17] Mortazavi took advantage of his position on the delegation to advocate the right of access to high technology, including nuclear power, for all nations.

He also warned the council that it should avoid being manipulated into doing the bidding of powerful states and that it should investigate human rights abuses perpetrated by Western powers, notably human rights abuses in the War on Terror, extraordinary rendition, Islamophobia, criticism of the Islamic dress code and veil, and the suppression of the freedom of speech of Holocaust deniers.

Mortazavi was a prosecutor on the cases of Roxana Saberi, an American-Iranian journalist accused of spying, and Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, whose posts were critical of the establishment.

[11] In early 2010 the Iranian parliament released a report identifying Saeed Mortazavi as "the main culprit in the scandal" over the Kahrizak detention center.

The report stated that 147 prisoners arrested for participating in demonstrations against irregularities in the 2009 election of President Ahmadinejad had been "held in a 70-square-meter room for four days without proper ventilation, heating and food on Mortazavi's orders".

Do observers disagree over whether the post was a promotion to "deputy to the nation's top prosecutor," with "a fancy title and protection from future legal action," or "a demotion" that strips him of powers he had enjoyed, such as the ability to order an arrest or halt to political activities.

[5] In January 2013, Iran's parliament successfully "lobbied to have him removed" from this position, but following that, Ahmadinejad reappointed him as head of the organization in a "caretaker role".

[25][26] In late August 2010, Saeed Mortazavi and two judges were suspended from office after a judicial investigation into the deaths of three men from torture[28] detained on his orders following the controversial June 2009 presidential election.

[5]According to journalists Golnaz Esfandiari and Mohammad Zarghami and other sources,[25][28] the trial is "widely seen as an indirect move against Ahmadinejad", since he had "used Mortazavi to bring corruption charges against his political rivals" in the past.

[5] The arrest came a day after Ahmadinejad "released a secret video in parliament where Mortazavi allegedly discussed a fraudulent business deal, implicating Iran's highly influential Larijani family".