MOHAMMAD KHATAMI, the former Iranian president, faces possible police questioning when he arrives in Britain this week to accept an honorary degree from St Andrews University.

The Metropolitan police have confirmed that they are investigating complaints lodged by two Iranian exiles who claim they were falsely imprisoned and brutally tortured while Khatami was in office.

Safa Einollahi, 29, and Ali Ebrahimi, 34, claim that Khatami, who was in power from 1997 to 2005, was ultimately responsible for the atrocities they endured.

They want him arrested under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, which allows for any individual, regardless of nationality, to be arrested for carrying out, condoning or colluding in crimes of torture anywhere in the world.

As president, Khatami had a reputation internationally as a moderate hemmed in by extremists. His term ended last year with the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He has been invited to open a new centre for Iranian studies on the Fife campus. He was due to be presented with an honorary doctorate by Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader who is also the university’s chancellor. Campbell, however, has pulled out of the engagement.

The official explanation is that he wants to attend a debate at Westminster on Britain’s continuing role in Iraq, but senior Lib Dem sources have indicated that he has come under pressure to distance himself from Khatami.

Campbell’s decision follows the publication of a letter signed by 12 parliamentarians, including Lord Waddington, a former Tory home secretary, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, a former lord advocate in Scotland, and Baroness Harris and Lord Russell-Johnston, both Liberal Democrat peers, urging Brian Lang, the university principal, to cancel the visit.

The choice of Khatami as an honoured guest has prompted criticism by a diverse group that includes exiled Iranians, the Israeli government, politicians and students across the UK.

“They pretend that Khatami was a ‘moderate’ when he ruled, and in comparison with his successor he was; but that is like describing Himmler as a moderate compared with Hitler,” said Struan Stevenson, the Conservative MEP.

Einollahi, who now lives in London, claims he was arrested in July 2003 within days of attending a student rally in Tehran.

“I was left blindfolded for eight hours in a room so tiny that I couldn’t move,” he said. “Then I was interrogated by two agents who wanted the names of my activist friends. They beat me until I passed out. I was left bleeding and injured for a day in a cell with no light.”

A report prepared by his GP reveals how his torturers repeatedly thrust batons and bottles into his rectum. It says that he is awaiting surgery for a complete prolapse and loss of bowel control. There are other enduring physical injuries but the doctor also emphasises the terrible psychological damage.

Ebrahimi claims he was arrested in 1999 for attending a “sit-in” protest at Iran’s Shiraz University over the government’s treatment of students.

During his six-month imprisonment he claims he was strung up, whipped across the soles of his feet with thick cables and beaten with batons. On one occasion, a guard used pliers to wrench a nail from his finger. On another, a bottle was forced into his rectum.

“I feared for my life,” he said. “They threatened me with the end, they said nobody knew where I was, nobody could do anything. I didn’t know if it was day or night. I thought I would be executed. But somehow I survived. I feel I have been born again in Britain. I want to use my freedom of speech in Britain to speak out against what is happening to my people in Iran.”

A spokesman for the university said the decision to invite Khatami was based on his “vision and willingness to change”.

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