LONDON: A former senior Iranian government official has been accused of allegedly endorsing a fatwa against author Sir Salman Rushdie and Britain's Metropolitan Police is under pressure to press charges against him.

London resident Syed Attaullah Mohajerani is accused of breaching the 2006 Terrorism Act by promoting terrorism, according to the file of a legal case being examined by Met investigators, The Guardian reported on Monday.

Ayatollah Khomeini, who was then Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa against Rushdie in February 1989, in response to the 1988 release of his book "The Satanic Verses".

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It has never been raised. In August 2022, Rushdie was seriously injured and repeatedly stabbed while performing on stage at a literary festival in New York.

Iranian human rights lawyer Kaveh Mousavi and British lawyer Rebecca Mooney reportedly filed a complaint against Mohajerani in the same month.

According to the report, Mohajerani served as deputy to the Iranian prime minister in 1988 and as vice president for parliamentary and legal affairs between 1989 and 1997, a time frame in which the Tehran government authorized the killing of several dissidents in Europe. .

General Qassem Soleimani, the former leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020, has been hailed as an Iranian national hero on several occasions since moving to the UK. Mousavi and Mooney claim that Mohajerani failed to stop the killings.

He claims that Mohajerani defended the fatwa against Rushdie and made it clear that it was morally justifiable, irreversible, and therefore impossible to retract in his 1989 book, "A Critique of the Satanic Versus Conspiracy".

According to the Guardian, Mohajerani denied the allegations and claimed that his book was merely a criticism of Rushdie's book that sought to explain its underlying religious themes.

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According to Mohajerani, who spoke to the Guardian, "When Salman Rushdie was assaulted by an American citizen, I tweeted that I hoped Salman Rushdie would recover from the incident and that, as William Faulkner's advice, put on beauties Will write a novel with focus. and moral values, in the service of human beings."

On the other hand, he added a ton of fuel to the fire in "The Satanic Verses". I hope he gets a chance to heal himself properly. Furthermore, Mohajerani claimed that he was not involved in the execution of prisoners in Iran in 1988 because of the country's executive and judicial separation of powers.

Mohajerani's defense, in Mousavi's opinion, "is a sign of his culpability." It is absurd to think that it is or was an independent judiciary. He keeps saying it's further proof of who he really is, the man told the Guardian.

By law, he was required to object, do his best to prevent these crimes, and resign if he failed. I highly doubt that his defense attorneys will present these arguments in court as a defense or mitigation.

According to reports, police in London have said that it will take considerable time and resources to fully investigate the complex issues raised by the case file.

Mooney, speaking on behalf of the human rights organization Ending Immunity, stressed that UK authorities are required by international law to bring criminal cases against those who commit crimes abroad.

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"It is the first duty of the State to protect its citizens; this requires preventive, proscriptive and punitive measures," she declared. "For this reason, we have anti-terrorism laws, which prohibit speech advocating terrorism. If we do not pursue cases under these laws, they are meaningless."