Tehran - (AFP) - The Iranian judiciary announced Friday that it had sentenced a police chief to 15 months in prison for issuing "false reports", among other things, in an alleged rape case that sparked bloody violence in southeastern Iran.

"On December 3rd, the military court sentenced Chabahar police chief (southeast) Ibrahim Kuchakzai to 15 months in prison and dismissed him from his job," Mizan Online reported.

Kochakzai is suspected of raping a teenage girl from the Baloch minority in Chabahar in Sistan-Baluchistan province, but his conviction does not indicate that.

"He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for creating an atmosphere of suspicion towards the police, 15 months in prison for issuing false statements, and 15 months for canceling orders and making threats," according to Mizan Online.

The police chief's sentence will only be 15 months because sentences are executed simultaneously in Iran. The same source added that the verdict is "final" even if "other charges" are still under investigation, without giving further details.

After Kochakzai was charged with rape, thousands of people took to the streets on September 30 to protest in Zahedan, the province's largest city.

At a time when the country witnessed a protest movement that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, on September 16, the protest in Zahedan was followed by other demonstrations and clashes with the police, in which dozens of people were killed, including members of the security forces.

In the aftermath of the violence, the authorities sacked senior officials of the security forces in the region.

In November, the Verkhitigan newspaper reported that the police chief interrogated a 15-year-old girl in early September "alone in his office, without surveillance cameras or police officers, and without a court order."

Upon her return to her home, the girl confirmed that "the police chief raped her," according to the newspaper, which added that the medical report, which the family questioned, concluded that she had not been raped.