Tehran’s cyber police chief has been sacked for negligence in events leading to the death in custody of an Iranian blogger, Iran’s police said on its website yesterday.

Colonel Saeed Shokrian “was removed from his post due to negligence and lax supervision over personnel under his command,” police.ir reported, quoting a decree by Iran’s police chief, Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghadam.

His dismissal came weeks after the fate of blogger Sattar Beheshti, reportedly tortured to death after criticising Iran’s regime in his posts, provoked an international outcry.

Beheshti, 35, was found dead in his cell in a Tehran prison on November 3 after being arrested on October 30, according to chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie.

His death also provoked outrage inside the regime, in a rare case of Iran accepting international criticism over a human rights complaint.

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