Several men in Iran have come forward to allege that one of the country’s top Qu’ran reciters, held up as a role model for Iranian youth, sexually abused them as children.
Seven alleged victims have gone public through banned media outlets to say that 46-year-old Saaed Toosi raped them when they were his students between the ages of 12 - 14 in incidents which took place over the past seven years.
At least three of the men claim that previous complaints made through legal channels were covered up or ignored by religious Revolutionary Guard authorities in order to protect the reputation of Iran’s religious institutions.
BBC Persian and Voice of America broadcast interviews in which complainants said they were left with no choice but to take their grievances first to social media, and then the news outlets, which are followed by millions of Iranians illegally online.
The anonymous plaintiffs said they had written evidence and video recordings of Mr Toosi admitting to the allegations - including that he had offered the children massages as a pretext before attacking them - as a “mistake.”
Toosi himself has since issued a statement denying all of the claims made, which he called “total lies” aimed at discrediting the state’s religious foundations and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom has praised Mr Toosi's scripture recitals in the past.
The affair has now reached the national press, scandalising the Islamic Republic, where sexual misconduct allegations against powerful public figures are unheard of.
Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani defended the handling of the case on Monday, the Guardian reported, saying those who cooperated with “hostile media” should be punished “so we know who is [loyal] to the revolution and who is not.”
Homosexuality is technically punishable by death in Iran, but sex between men and boys is defined differently, causing confusion over whether cases involve consensual sex, or rape and abuse.
Mr Toosi’s case is still open and has been passed to an expert judge, authorities said, but further details were not forthcoming.
