Karroubi’s letter to Rafsanjani on abuse of detainees

- written July 31, 2009 (but released 10 days later)

Translation at enduringamerica.com, posted August 10:

Excerpts:

[…] Some have been illegally and inappropriately arrested. Others have been subject to beatings. Some have been injured and murdered. People’s residences as well as dormitories have been raided and turned into a bloodbath. Even women have been subject to savage and horrendous abuses on the street. These events should be investigated. But certain other horrific acts have been committed that if not for accounts from different sources in recent days, I or yourself would have had a hard time believing them.

Severe and brutal beatings have been reported such that after 40 days the victims are still not in stable condition.

Detainees have been subject to humiliating badmouthing, and cursing. This also occurred for people who attended your Friday prayer. This sort of behavior is not acceptable in our religious and Islamic culture as all parties and groups have stressed. This shows that people who have been hired to commit these acts are not familiar with the most basic principle of our religion. […]

But I have heard something else that even still, thinking of it makes me shiver. I have not been able to sleep the last two days since I heard this. […]

[…] something horrific has happened in the prisons. If only one case is true, it is a catastrophe for the Islamic Republic of Iran which has turned the bright, shining history of Shia clerics into an atrocious, shameful fate and has outdone many dictatorial regimes, including that of the tyrannical Shah. […]

[…] right now, in society, this issue is being widely discussed by people who were arrested and by different media and websites. It is unclear what future generations will think of these events when they continuously become exaggerated. They will hold the Islamic Republic and clerical ranks also responsible. […]

Mr. Hashemi, this is what I have been informed about:

Some of the detainees have reported that certain individuals have so severely raped some of the girls in custody that the attacks have caused excruciating damage and injury to their reproductive organs. At the same time, they report that others have raped the young boys so violently that upon their release, they have had to endure great physical and mental pain and have been lying in a corner of their homes since. […]

Complete text of the letter