Iran is accused of torturing minors during anti-government protests
Iran’s moral police
Iranian security forces have tortured children and young people during the anti-government protests that have rocked Iran since last fall, according to a report published Thursday by Amnesty International. The demonstrators were beaten, whipped, subjected to electric shocks, rapes, and other forms of sexual violence by representatives of the intelligence and security services, with the authorities resorting to violence against the youth to prevent them from protesting, according to the report. “It is abhorrent that public officials abuse the power they have in this way by using it against vulnerable and frightened children, causing them and their families serious pain, anxiety, and severe physical and mental scars,” he stressed in a statement by Dieter Karg, Iran expert at Amnesty International Germany.
The organization documented in the report cases of violence against children and young people after they were arrested; starting with beatings administered in law enforcement vans. In prison, minors were subjected to electric shocks to their genitals, forced to take unknown pills, and threatened with brutality, the authors of the report noted. Before releasing them, the officials threatened the children that they would arrest their families if they complained to anyone about the treatment they received; some of the tortured children were only 12 years old, notes Amnesty. The organization’s report is based on the testimonies of dozens of arrested people and their relatives. A protest movement broke out in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, on September 16 last year, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the morality police (an institution that has since been dissolved), on the grounds that her death would have violated the strict dress code requiring women to wear veils in public. Along the way, the demonstrations for women’s freedom turned into a movement against the religious regime, which is facing an unprecedented challenge since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In the last three months of 2022, thousands of Iranians and approximately 50 foreign nationals have been arrested, and at least 2,000 people have been charged in connection with anti-government protests in Iran. Since young people took part in the protests, most of them probably under 25 years old, Amnesty believes that several thousand children were among those arrested. On Monday, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, announced that 22,000 people arrested during the anti-government protests had been granted amnesty. Amnesty International appealed for the release of the arrested minors and asked the international community to hold Iranian officials accountable for these violence. “Since there is no prospect of truly impartial investigations into the torture of children in Iran, we call on all states, as well as the German government, to exercise universal jurisdiction over Iranian officials,” concluded Dieter Karg.
By Sara Colin
