by Danielle Greyman-Kennard
As part of its campaign of suppression, Tehran has arrested people in mass, detaining individuals in unofficial facilities where they cannot communicate with the outside world.
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The Islamic regime has orchestrated a brutal crackdown to quash dissent and conceal its human rights violations, according to a damning new report published by the NGO Human Rights Watch on Tuesday.
As part of its campaign of suppression, Tehran has arrested people in mass, detaining individuals in unofficial facilities where they cannot communicate with the outside world, broadcast hundreds of coerced confessions by both minors and adults, and forcibly disappeared thousands of civilians.
“As a whole nation remains in shock, horror, and grief, and families still search for their loved ones in the aftermath of the massacres of January 8 and 9, authorities continue to terrorize the population. Arrests continue, and detainees face torture, coerced ‘confessions,’ and secret, summary, and arbitrary executions,” said Bahar Saba, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Given the immense dangers those detained and forcibly disappeared face, international monitors should immediately be given unhindered access to all detention facilities and prisons,” he added.
Speaking with 23 people in and outside of Iran, including the families of those killed or disappeared, lawyers, medical professionals, and prisoners, the report focused on violations in the provinces of Alborz, Eastern Azerbaijan, Fars, Golestan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Kouzestan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Razavi Khorasan, and Tehran.
The organization was also able to obtain footage of security forces violently arresting protesters and analyze 139 forced confessions broadcast by the state media site Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
Forces televised confessions
HRW stated that the forced televised confessions violate the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment, the right to presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial.
In at least two videos reviewed by HRW, state media broadcast the forced confessions of two 16-year-old girls aged 16, who were made to say they received foreign support to protest.
Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old wrestling champion sentenced to death by a court in Qom in a trial lasting less than a month, is said to have been one of the many forced to confess under torture.
The regime’s authorities allege the teenager was involved in the death of a member of the security forces, and he is set to receive a public execution despite a lack of material evidence.
The Islamic regime initially took an understanding tone when demonstrations broke out in December in response to the country’s economic crisis, but switched strategies to one of violent suppression only days later.
On January 8, Tehran blocked internet access and severely disrupted landline connections, making it difficult for families to stay connected and for international organizations to monitor the reality on the ground.
“Systematic impunity has enabled Iranian authorities to repeatedly commit crimes under international law,” Saba said. “Other countries’ judicial authorities should initiate criminal investigations of international crimes under the principle of universal jurisdiction and in accordance with national laws, with a view to prosecute those suspected of criminal responsibility.”
While the Islamic regime has only acknowledged the deaths of 3,117 people, alleging they were killed by foreign-backed rioters, NGOs and human rights organizations have alleged the regime slaughtered thousands in the protests, and an Iranian doctor earlier told the Post that the regime’s security forces murdered protesters in their hospital beds as they were being treated for their wounds.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana), at least 7,000 people were killed in the January crackdown, including 6,488 protesters and 236 children.
The IRGC acknowledged in January that at least 11,000 people had been summoned by intelligence and security forces and, according to the judiciary’s spokesperson, 10,538 individuals had been referred for prosecution, with 8,843 indictments having been issued by February 17.
One of those detained by the regime sent a recording to Human Rights Watch asking that international scrutiny continue. “Do not forget the detainees… Be our voice; if you do not raise your voice, they will eliminate us all,” he sent to the organization.
Several sources confirmed to HRW that detainees were being held in isolation, in unofficial facilities and wards emptied for their detention, in an apparent attempt to disrupt the flow of information.
The organization stressed that those held in unofficial facilities run by security and intelligence bodies were at heightened risk of torture and arbitrary, summary, and secret executions.
One detainee in solitary confinement confirmed, “Everyone you see has been horribly tortured… All [confessions] are coerced, they [authorities] would write up what they want themselves or would dictate what to write… and if you did not accept to sign, they would hit you with a shocker [electric shock weapon] on the head. You are sitting there blindfolded, shackled, and in handcuffs, encircled by several men; you would accept anything.”
Further complicating investigations into the number of those killed, detained, or forcibly disappeared is a lack of material evidence provided to the families informed that their loved ones were killed.
Many families complained that no bodies were returned to them, and they received no information despite repeated inquiries. Unverified footage shared by BBC Persian and Iran International last month showed hundreds of bodies piled in black bags in makeshift facilities awaiting identification.
A teacher of two missing protesters, who haven’t been seen since January 8, said, “The family knows they were in the protests and has since been to all police stations, hospitals, and morgues, but there is no trace of them. They do not know if they are dead or alive.”
Sekhavat Salimi, a former political prisoner, made a video on February 1 announcing that he had been unable to locate his son’s body, Mohammadi Ali Salimi, despite having received a call informing him of his death. “For 10 to 15 days, I searched everywhere in Tehran and Karaj. I went to Kahrizak [morgue], and to Behest-e Zahra and Behesht-e Sakineh [cemeteries]. I searched for my son everywhere but did not find him or his body... There is no trace of him. I do not know what to do,” he shared.
The Volunteer Committee to Follow-Up on the Situation of Detainees, a network of activists outside Iran, had published the names and details of over 2,800 people arrested, but the true scale remains unknown. Last week, Amnesty International was able to confirm the identity of 30 people, including minors, who are now facing execution.
Protesters interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that prosecutors and prison officials have systematically denied the arrested protesters access to their lawyers and refused to provide information about detainees’ fate and whereabouts to their families.
Under Iran’s Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, only lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary can be appointed to defend individuals charged with national security offenses.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission confirmed that many judiciary-approved lawyers had previously been involved in human rights violations, making their appropriateness deeply questionable.
Under Note to Article 48 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, individuals charged with certain offenses, including national security offenses, are denied the right to access an independent lawyer of their own choosing. Only lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary can be appointed to defend them.
“Detainees have no access to lawyers,” a lawyer told HRW. “Families do not want to retain Article 48 lawyers. Independent lawyers who go to officials to take on protest detainees’ cases are told by the authorities, ‘Are you an Article 48 lawyer? No? Then leave, you cannot take the case.’”
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran and human rights organizations have documented a pattern of complicity by many judiciary-approved lawyers in grave human rights violations. As a result, families and detainees have said they do not trust them.
One human rights defender, who spoke to the relatives of detainees in Ilam and Kermanshah, said officials responded with profanities and insults when contacted by families for information. The organization was also able to verify footage of dozens of families outside prisons, prosecutors’ offices, and police stations, hoping to gather some information about their loved ones’ fates.
The family of one detainee told the NGO, “When we ask officials at the prosecutor’s office [about our loved one], they tell us, ‘They are criminals, if they weren’t, we would not have arrested them,’ “When we ask what their crime is, they respond, ‘You yourselves know better.’”
Matching accounts shared by a member of the Aida Healthcare Alliance with the Post, HRW said that it had documented cases of torture, both psychological and physical, sexual violence, and the withholding of medical treatment for detainees. The documentation revealed severe beatings with batons, in addition to food deprivation and the consistent threat of execution being employed against detainees.
One woman who was detained in Razavi Khorasan said several agents violently arrested her while subjecting her to sexualized insults and profanities.
“Suddenly, around five or six members of the security forces attacked me and started beating me on the back of my head and neck with batons and gunstock. I am a small-sized woman, and there were six of them, all men,” she recounted to HRW.
“They handcuffed me from the back and made me lie on my stomach, faced down. Then they took me to their vehicle while constantly swearing at me and put my face on the trunk of the car. When I objected to my arrest telling them that I had not done anything, they hit me in the face with a shield, and I got a bloodied nose.”
An informed source also told HRW that a 16-year-old was severely tortured and was denied food for 5 days after he was arrested in his home.
The
source shared that security forces repeatedly beat him to the point he
lost consciousness on multiple occasions, and relatives complained his
face had been bruised when they visited him from behind a glass barrier.
Witnesses
also complained to HRW that the regime had placed checkpoints across
cities, set new rules resembling curfews and martial law, and people
were regularly being subjected to stop and search operations by armed
agents.
Danielle Greyman-Kennard
Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-887757
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