LONDON: Iranian exiles are trying to get one of the country’s most prominent judges arrested after he traveled to Germany to receive medical treatment.
Gholamreza Mansouri was a prosecutor based at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison where many political prisoners are held. He went on to become a judge overseeing the press court.
Mansouri was rumored to have fled Iran after being accused of corruption and taking €500,000 ($565,121) in bribes, The Times reported. He is receiving medical treatment at a clinic run by a neurosurgeon of Iranian origin named Majid Samii.
The judge has issued a statement saying he intends to return to Iran, which has caused protests outside the clinic, The Times said.
A UK-based Iranian exile lawyer says he is in contact with German prosecution authorities with a view to arresting Mansouri for human rights abuses, the British newspaper added.
Kaveh Moussavi told The Times that Mansouri had overseen the torture of suspects and had jailed dozens of journalists during his tenure as a judge. 
“We have managed to secure two witnesses whose credibility I have thoroughly checked,” Moussavi said.
The lawyer has previously brought charges against other regime officials in Europe.
Moussavi said he would initiate proceedings in Germany, as well as Sweden and Norway, where the two witnesses live. All three countries have laws that allow extraterritorial jurisdiction for cases involving crimes against humanity.
Mansouri led a crackdown on newspapers and jailed 20 journalists on one day in 2013, according to the US-backed opposition station Radio Farda. He became influential after the 2009 Iranian Green Movement against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.