Torture in Iran - CBS 60 Minutes

April 5, 2009

Ahmad Batebi tells CNN's Anderson Cooper, in his 1st U.S. television interview how he was tortured for 9 years in an Iranian prison and how he managed to escape.

What really happened in Iran after the election

50 min documetary, via @onlymehdi

Unfortunately no English subtitles, but the video tells a powerful story on its own.

At least 200 killed in Tehran alone

- in the wake of the post election unrest

Times online has done some excellent reporting on human rights violations in Iran in the wake of the post election unrest. On September 18, the paper revelaed that they had been given access to several documents suggesting that the killings, rape and torture stories that have leaked out of Iran since June, is part of a systematic program ordered by the highest authorities and aimed at breaking the opposition.

Excerpts from the article:

'Torture, murder and rape' — Iran’s way of breaking the opposition

Times online. September 18, 2009

[…] The Times has been given access to 500 pages of documents […] They suggest that security forces have engaged in systematic killing and torture to try to break the opposition.

“The use of rape and torture was similar across prisons in Tehran and the provinces. It is difficult not to conclude that the highest authorities planned and ordered these actions. Local authorities would not dare take such actions without word from above,” wrote one investigator, in a coded reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.

Mehdi Karoubi, 72, a defeated presidential candidate, said: “These crimes are a source of shame for the Islamic republic.”

Western non-governmental organisations said the documents corroborated what they were hearing from Iran […]

“We are repeatedly receiving credible reports of harsh beatings, sleep deprivation and alleged torture to extract false confessions in Iranian jails,” said Steve Crawshaw, UN director of Human Rights Watch. “Iran has fallen off the front pages but this doesn’t mean the situation is improving. On the contrary, we very much fear it is getting worse.”

The documents suggest that at least 200 demonstrators were killed in Tehran, with 56 others still unaccounted for, and that 173 were killed in other cities. These are several times higher than the official figures. Just over half of the 200 were killed on the streets. […]

The rest of Tehran’s 200 known victims died in custody […] In three quarters of the cases, the victims’ families were told nothing about their whereabouts and were denied permission to hold proper funerals. The opposition claims that dozens were buried in unmarked graves in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. […]

The documents also suggest that a chain of unofficial, makeshift prisons has been set up across Iran where rape and torture are common practice. In Tehran alone, 37 young men and women claim to have been raped by their jailers. Doctors’ reports say that two males, aged 17 and 22, died as a result of severe internal bleeding after being raped.

Many of the male rape victims also spoke of beatings, being subjected to forms of sexual humiliation including riding naked colleagues, and living in their underwear and in filthy conditions. Some testified that prisoners were subjected to torture including beatings, electrocution and having their toenails torn out. […]

Female rape victims were mostly held for days, not weeks, like the men. Some said that their jailers claimed to have “religious sanction” to violate them as they were “morally dirty”.

Almost all, male and female, testified that they were ordered to say nothing of their ordeal or they would face more of the same.

The documents detail other systematic abuses: violent raids on student dormitories, attacks on the homes of suspected opposition sympathisers and the widespread intimidation of medics. They cite instances of security forces storming hospitals and ordering doctors not to treat injured demonstrators, not to record deaths by gunshot and to suppress medical reports indicating rape or torture. […]

[Karroubi]: “There are no few stories about the rape of girls and boys in prison. I say to myself three decades after the revolution and two decades after the death of the Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] — what place have we reached?”

Read full story here

Saeeda Pour-Aghaie – Update

@omidhabibinia: Saeedeh Pouraghai is alive. Tonight she appeared on TV after two months missing!

************

Edit, 22 November:

In a note on Karroubis latest letter, the blog Enduring America today had this interesting note about Saeeda in brackets:

"The claims that Pouraghai had been raped and killed by security forces are now discounted. Some believe the case was “manufactured” by the regime so it would discredit the opposition when the falsehood emerged."

It seems this story may have been planted by the regime.

Ebrahim Sharifi on Radio Farda

Rape victim Ebrahim Sharifi did an interview with Radio Farda

Translation tweeted by @persianbanoo, September 21.

Ebrahim Sharifi, computer science & Italian language student talks to Radio Farda about his arrest.

ES: I was returning home from the Italian Consulate when I heard someone calling me. I went towards the person calling me, and all of a sudden they grabbed me, handcuffed and blindfolded me. They threw me into a car pushing my head down behind the seat.

RF: How come in judiciary panel report they indicate there is no history of your arrest?

ES: Just what do you expect them to say. From the very beginning, when Mr. Moghadami started to interrogate me ... I told Mr. Karoubi that this prosecutor is talking to me as though I have received money from you to become a witness or as if I have become a pawn in a political game.

RF: After your arrest where was the first place they took you, and did they explain your charges?

ES: I was not interrogated the entire time. They only asked for my name when they released me.

RF: Where did they take you to?

ES: A place where I could not hear cars anymore. They took me out of the car and pushed me. All I could hear was the sound of my breath and others breathing. I was laying on my stomach. I don't know if I fell asleep or not. Early in the morning I could hear a woman's voice screaming: "Don't, don't, don't hit, don't hit!"

RF: Which detention center were you at?

ES: I don't know, I was handcuffed & blindfolded.

RF: How long were you at this detention center.

ES: From June 23 to June 30.

RF: When exactly were you raped?

ES: The fourth day they took me for a mock execution session. I told them, if you are going to execute me, then do it, what kind of games are you playing. Someone hit me in my stomach, I fell to the ground, he continued to hit me in my stomach. He told someone else "take him & make him pregnant". I was vomiting blood. They pulled me by my arm, took me to a room & tied me to the wall.

RF: You had said you didn't know if that same person raped you or someone else did.

ES: I think it was the same person. But I am not certain it was him or a foreign object was used. Even judge Mohamadi asked me if I resisted or protested in any way. I answered him I wasn't capable of thinking at that time.

RF: What were your feelings at that time?

ES: I was vomiting blood and also due to what had just happened I passed out. The man told me, "you can't even protect your-----how are you going to make velvet revolution?"

RF: When you became conscious, where did you find yourself?

ES: I was in a medical clinic, laying in a bed, IV in one arm and the other arm cuffed to the bed. Someone came in and asked a doctor if I was going to die or should they take care of me themselves. Blindfolded and handcuffed they threw me into a car drove me to Sabalan highway where they threw me out on the side of the road, told me to count to 60 nd then they left.

RF: What was the first thing you did after you arrived home?

ES: None of my family members knew of my rape until Mr. Alameh's video. Only Mr. Karoubi, a few Parliament members and Justice Dept officials and some of the clergy knew of the rape. The next day, a friend who is a lawyer advised me to make an official complaint. I went to the public prosecutor's office in Elahiyeh, filled in an official complaint. After being harassed there, I was able to obtain a letter from a judge. The judge told me to go to Niyavaran PD, he also said this could be the work of Monafeghin (MKO).

RF: Did you bring up the matter of your rape with the judge?

ES: No I did not.

RF: Then when did you decide to bring up the matter of your rape?

ES: I didn't want to talk about the rape. At the police station they told me it's best not to follow this case. They said this sounds like the Ministry's work, and I should thank God that I am still alive. I still had pain in my stomach and back, I was able to get a report from the medical examiner’s office. A friend suggested I should go to a clergy or to Mr. Karoubi. I went to Mr. Karoubi. At first I didn't want to say anything about being raped. Mr. Karoubi seeing my tears and the tone of my voice, asked if I was hiding anything. He asked everyone to leave the room, quoted an Ayeh from the Quran and asked if anything like that had happened to me. I said yes. I started to cry, he hugged me and was extremely upset. After a month and a half Mr. Moghadami interrogated me and took me to the medical examiner’s office. They told me that too long had gone by and that they could not make a ruling. The police had told me that the medical examiner's office would be able to even pin point the size of the object used.

*********

@persianbanoo:

So sad to think how many more rape victims there are that are not coming forward due to the stigma attached to rape in Iran. It is even harder for a female rape victim to come forward.

Rape victim Ebrahim Sharifi now lives outside Iran. His family and friends are being pressured to give TV interview and deny all of his rape charges. HRA is very concerned about his family’s safety.

IR HRA spokesman says, what happened to Sharifi was not a one time accident but seems to be a systematic torture method not limited to only one prisons in Tehran but is used in other cities in Iran as well.

The rape victims both male & female who are set free after the rape, are usually young and from religious families.

Two storys from Quds day

- as told by twitter activists on September 19

A family friend from Tehran:

As you know many people from villages and rural area were bussed into Tehran on Quds day. Many if not most of these people had not really seen or heard anti-govt slogans before. When they were in the Quds protest they were shocked to see anti-goverment things. Some of the villagers then asked green people about election and what happened. They said they would tell their people in the villages about this. So in this way having people from villages bussed into Tehran was good, because green people could talk to them. Now we know that the green message will spread to villages even more. They will tell their friend and family in the villages and the news will spread.

(@iranproxy)

Greens outnumbered pro-Ahmadinejad’s in Qods day rally in Isfahan. Isfahani people were a bit more afraid than Tehranis to wear green or hold green symbols but when they started chanting they realized how many they were and were encouraged. At first people were blending in chanting "Death to America!", but when they realized that others were green too, they started green chants.

(@IranRiggedElect)

Arrested, beaten and raped

- an Iran protester's tale

This account of rape and torture was published in Guardian.co.uk as early as July 1, 2009 as a part of Guardian’s project to trace people who were killed and detained during the unrest. When the story was published, Guardian had not been able to verify it through independent sources.

Afshin, a shopkeeper from south-west Iran, tells the story to Esfandiar Poorgiv (a pseudonym) a journalist and academic:

“He came to my shop around 10.30am. You could tell straight away that he had just been released. His face was bruised all over. His teeth were broken and he could hardly open his eyes.

[…] He had gone home directly after his release, but his father did not let him in. He didn't mention he had been raped. At first, he didn't tell me either. It was the doctor who first noticed it and told me.

When he came to my shop he collapsed in a chair. He said he had nowhere to go and asked if he could stay with me. I called a friend of mine who is a doctor to come home and see him. Then I brought him home.

His shoulder blades and arms were wounded. There were some slashes on the face. No bone fractures, but he was bruised all over the body. I wanted to take some photos but he did not let me. The doctor said only four of his teeth were intact, the rest were broken. You could hardly understand what he said.

Then the doctor told me what had happened. He had suffered rupture of the rectum and the doctor feared colonic bleeding. He suggested we take him to the hospital immediately.

They registered him under a false name and with somebody else's insurance. The nurses were crying. Two of them asked what sort of beast had beaten him up like that. He was a broken man. He told us not to waste our money on him, and that he would kill himself.

He was arrested in Shiraz on 15 June, the Monday after the election. Some sturdy young men made a human shield around the demonstrators. He was among them. He said he managed to hit some of the anti-riot police. But then they caught him and beat him up.

"I was kept in a van till evening that day and then transferred to a solitary cell where I was kept for two days," he said. "Then I was repeatedly interrogated, beaten and hung from a ceiling. They call it chicken kebab. They tie your hands and feet together and hang you from the ceiling, turning you around and beating you with cables.

"They gave us warm water to drink and one meal a day. Repeated smacking was a regular punishment. In interrogations, they kept on asking if I was instructed from abroad. I believed I was going to be sent from the detention centre to prison. But they sent me to where they called Roughnecks' Room. There were some other youths of my age in there. I asked a guard why I am not sent to prison and the reply was: 'You have to be our guest for a while.'

"I refused to confess during interrogations. They said: 'Ask your friends what we'll do to you if you don't co-operate.' Others in the room were also arrested on 15 June. I was tempted to confess at this point but I didn't. On the third and fourth day, they beat me up again. They insisted we were instructed from abroad. I kept on saying we were only protesting for our votes.

"It was on Saturday or Sunday that they raped me for the first time. There were three or four huge guys we had not seen before. They came to me and tore my clothes. I tried to resist but two of them laid me on the floor and the third did it. It was done in front of four other detainees.

"My cell mates, especially the older one, tried to console me. They said nobody loses his dignity through such an act. They did it to two other cell mates in the next days. Then it became a routine. We were so weak and beaten up that could not do anything.

"Then the interrogations started again. They said: 'If you don't come to your senses we will send you to Adel Abad [another prison in Shiraz] to the pederasts' section so that you receive such treatment every day.' I was so weak I did not know what to say. Then they asked for my contacts. I told them I had no contacts and I was informed about the demonstrations through the internet.

"The same routine was continued till this morning when I was released. In the last week, there was no interrogation, no beating. Only rape and solitary confinement."

This is what he recounted. But he couldn't articulate quite like this. He was in much physical and mental pain as he talked. I asked him to tell his story in the hope of making a difference to those still detained.”

Source

Ebrahim Sharifi on VoA

- telling his story of rape in prison

Link via @omidhabibinia

Unfortunately this video has no English subtitles.

Live blogs from Quds day, Sept 18

The following news sites and blogs are live blogging from today’s protests in Iran:

guardian.co.uk

enduringamerica.com

homylafayette

IranNewsNow

Videos from today at YouTube channels onlymehdi and peive17

Photos by @madyar

Also follow my blog list for up to date news.

Repeatedly raped in Iran prison

Maryam Sabri comes forward to tell VoA about her two weeks in jail where she was repeatedly raped. She was arrested because she was attending a memorail service for those killed in the post election protests.

Raped in prison

- pressured to stay silent

From Radio Free Europe

Radio Liberty Watchdog, September 14

“A well-known Iranian filmmaker, Reza Allamezadeh, has posted on his website a video of a young Iranian man, Ebrahim Sharifi, who says he was raped in prison in Iran after being arrested in the postelection crackdown. [See yesterday’s blog entry]

Sharifi says he was harassed and threatened by officials for talking about his experience and informing reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi about what he went through in detention.

Karrubi, who has said that postelection detainees have been "savagely" raped in prison, said earlier this month that one of his rape witnesses had disappeared. Sharifi says he's Karrubi's witness and he decided to go into hiding following threats against his family.

The young man says he was told by a security officer, who first claimed to be a friend of his father, that if he talked about his experience with a special parliamentary commission investigating the postelection violence, he and his family would be killed in a fake accident. Sharifi says the man told him, "You know we will do it." Sharifi says that because of this threat he went into hiding and has been in hiding since.

He sent the video to Allamezadeh and asked him to make it public. Allamezadeh had recently posted testimony by two women who were raped in Iranian prisons in the 1980s. Sharifi says he decided to send a letter about his plight in prison to Allamezadeh so that someone outside Iran would know about it in case something happened to him and Karrubi.

[…] Sharifi says he was interrogated for 11 hours and pressured to confess that he had received money from Karrubi to make the rape allegations.

He says he thought many times about committing suicide, but he adds that he also thinks about his rights and the violations of the rights of people such as him. […]”

Read full story here.

Reza Allamezadeh’s interviews with other rape victims:

Witness 1

Witness 2

Karroubi’s witness speaks out

Twitter September 13-14:

• @IranRiggedElect: Reza Allamehzadeh claims video & conversation with Karroubi's witness (rape victim).
• @sbelg: Ebrahim Sharifi, Karoubi's witness, records a video on his cell phone & sends it out to tell his story.
• @iran88: Karoubi's eyewitness: My families was threatened to death, I'm hiding (FA) http://bit.ly/EVXpn

I’ll publish English translation if it becomes available.

No Rape and Sexual Assualts in Islamic Republic

- Karroubi has accepted that he fabricated the evidence

Saeeda Pour-Aghaie is still alive, she just ran away from home.

Regime’s own special committee has investigated the story about Saeeda Pour-Aghaie, and concluded that Karroubi was not telling the truth. Karroubi has, after friendly conversation about this case with the committee, accepted that he had made up the whole story to promote his own political agenda.

From the English translation of the report by Iranian Leftists, September 13

“Further investigations about this woman revealed that:

Her father was not a martyr […] and also Ms. S. P. was not the only child of the family […].

This girl had had problems with her mother, and since 2007, she had run away from home 6 times, […] a few times she had been arrested by the police, along with another boy and girl, she was imprisoned and then sent back to her mother, […]

Her mother knows nothing about the claims of Mr. Karoubi and Mr. Mousavi, and what their sites have stated, and she says that she doesn’t know whether her daughter has run away like last times, or if she has been arrested.

The known fact so far is that Ms. S. P. is missing, […] and the claims made by Mr. Karoubi and his connections are not at all true.

[…] [Saeeda’s mother:] When we held the memorial in Gholhak Mosque, I was surprised when the speaker announced that Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi was there, and then they informed me that Mr. Mousavi wanted to come to my house and sympathize, but I refused. From one day before the memorial to a few days after the memorial, some people who claimed to be representatives of Mr. Mousavi, called my house and talked about matters that I did not know of, and I denied.

[…] After gaining this information, we set a meeting with Mr. Karoubi at 2:00 pm on September 7, 2009 in the office of the attorney general, to further discuss the results of our inspections.

At the beginning of the meeting, before talking about the results, we asked Mr. Karoubi: “During this time, have you found any new information about your previously-stated claims?”

Mr. Karoubi answered: “it seems that Ms. S. P. was not the daughter of a martyr and this assumption was a mistake. A woman contacted me, along with another person, and she told me that she was the sister of Ms. S. P. and that their father was not a martyr, but he had passed a few years back. She wanted information on how her sister had died. I (Karoubi) told her that I did not have information on the details of her death, and I had only heard about it. She asked me to give her the address of her house, and I asked: “How can you not know where you own sister lives?” she answered: “We had serious problems with our father’s wife and I never went to their house and I don’t know where they live.”

I (Karoubi) contacted my people and told them about this woman, and how she claimed that their father was not a martyr, and my connections told me that she was right.

We asked Mr. Karoubi: “Who was responsible for investigating her case?”

Mr. Karoubi answered: “Mr. Maghiseh said that her father was not a martyr, and he said that apparently the girl is still alive and she had called home.”

We had a long, friendly conversation about this case and the details of the inspections, and Mr. Karoubi accepted that his claims about Ms. S. P. were completely wrong and were only created for political advantages.”

Full story

Raped and beaten

for daring to question President Ahmadinejad’s election

From Times online, September 11

Times online has published several accounts of rape and torture in Iran prisons since the election protests and the following arrests began in mid June.

In this editorial Martin Fletcher and a special correspondent in Tehran tells the story of Ardeshir (not his real name), a young engineering student, who […] “was locked up, beaten and raped multiple times for daring to protest against President Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.”

A psychologist said that the young man “has extreme feelings of self-hatred resulting from a sense that he will never be clean again, and from shame over the repeated rapes.”

“A hospital report confirms he suffered anal damage.” […]

Ardeshir “was no political activist but took to the streets on June 20 to protest at the election. He and his friends were attacked by Basij, the Islamic volunteer militia, and separated.

As the violence increased [he] headed to a metro station but was seized by plain-clothed police and thrown into a windowless van containing 14 other bruised and bloodied demonstrators.

They were driven to an apartment building 90 minutes away that was clearly an unofficial detention centre. Ardeshir believes that 60 to 70 detainees were held there.

The new arrivals were ordered to strip to their underwear and stand in lines. Two Basiji “rubbed our genital areas with their batons, calling us ‘scum’ and saying ‘Ah, yes, the balls of the foot soldiers of the heretic Mousavi’,” Ardeshir recalled. “They then promised that we would confess to trying to overthrow the divine regime.”

The next day two Basiji took a 17-year-old schoolboy from the cell that Ardeshir was in. “Ten minutes later we heard him screaming and crying. It then went suddenly silent,” Ardeshir said.

“A couple of minutes later two Basiji grabbed me ... I felt faint and wanted to cry when faced with a scene I had never before in my life imagined ... The boy, completely naked, was seemingly unconscious on the mat, his face in a pile of vomit and with blood around his rectum.

“A Basiji called Mahmoud said, ‘Take a good look. That will happen to you if you resist, you faggot lover of Mousavi’.

“The Basiji then said: ‘Now you.’ “They threw me on my back on the ground. Mahmoud then urinated on my face, saying that this would teach me not to oppose the divine wishes of the Great Leader of the Revolution. ‘We have been sent to re-educate you, you spoilt Western piece of shit,’ he said.

“They took off my underwear and made me go around on all fours. Then Mahmoud said it was time for my punishment. I was still on all fours when he began to rape me. As he penetrated me I cried out and felt as if I would throw up. He told me that if I didn’t stop screaming he would stick his baton up me.

“When he was done, another Basiji came up and raped me. At this point I felt that I was not me. I seemed to have shut down and separated from my body. All I could think of was when it was going to end, and why these people who claim to be the most religious in our society can do such things?”

Every other day Basiji would choose detainees from the cell to rape. “The third time they dragged me from the cell, I momentarily escaped their grip and ran to a corner. I screamed, ‘You say you are Muslim. How can you rape and humiliate us in this way?’. They laughed and said they had religious sanction from the Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] to do so because we had gone against his word.

“Three guys then dragged me from the corner. I was shoved against the wall, face first. Two guys spread my legs and once again I was raped by them. I just cried and prayed for God to take my life. After the third man finished Mahmoud said, ‘This is for insubordination. I warned you. I then felt a large object shoved up my rectum. I think I lost consciousness because the next thing I knew I was back in the cell. […]

“They also liked to take several of us out at the same time and forced us to ride each other, doggy-style, whilst naked. They laughed and took pictures with their mobile phones. They would watch this for ten minutes and then proceed to rape.” […]

After being beaten and raped again by two Basiji Ardeshir finally signed the “confession” which said that opposition leaders and the foreign media had encouraged him to engage in anti-regime activities, and was released.

“He’s a broken boy,” his father told The Times. “I just pray that we can put him back together, although I know he will never be the same gregarious, optimistic, sensitive boy we brought up. How could this so-called Islamic regime do this?”

Iran Panel: Rape Charges Are False

Quotes from an article by Nazila Fathi

- in New York Times, September 12, 2009:

“An Iranian judicial committee rejected accusations put forward by the opposition that its supporters had been raped at detention centers, calling them baseless, and ruled that documents presented as evidence of rapes and other abuse were fabricated, Fars news agency reported Saturday.” […]

“The rape accusations have been especially embarrassing for the country’s religious leadership, which only reluctantly admitted that there had been some other “violations” at one detention center. That admission came after many former prisoners came forward to say they had been tortured, and after conservatives, whose loyalty the government needs, joined a chorus of criticism against the treatment of detainees.” […]

“The judicial committee’s ruling came just one day after Ayatollah Khamenei issued a warning to opposition leaders, saying the government would not tolerate “lies and rumors,” and would give a “harsh response” to those who challenged its principles.” […]

Full story

Karoubi's Letter to the Head of Iran's Judiciary

- written after his office was attacked and sealed

From Revolutionary Road (Facebook page) - posted September 12:

Karroubi on his meetings with the judiciary committee:

“[I also said] know this, that if in my investigations I conclude that any of these allegations are false, I will step forward and right this wrong. In this regard, my further investigations had proven the falsity of some of the previous statements I had made about Saeedeh Pouraghayi, which I corrected.

[…] our meeting with the committee came to a good end.”

[The day after Karroubi’s meeting with the committee, his office was attacked and searched, and office documents, personal letters and writings, bills and private papers and even charity money were confiscated. Also the office Etermad Melli, Karroubi’s political party, was shut down and sealed and documents confiscated.]

Karroubi continues:

“I am left wondering: did these events occur on Tuesday as a result of my meeting on Monday? I am left baffled not by what they have done to Karoubi, but that they think that Karoubi, the son of Ahmad, is going to leave the field and choose to remain silent? Now I know why some friends and advisers insisted that I give all the evidence for rape and torture as it had been retold to me by the victims, on a CD and to keep a copy in a safe place. Because the machine of terror is still at work and who knows, some of the witnesses may now take back their claims out of fear.

[…] after such terror, fear and threats, is it even possible to attend to the terror and atrocity that occurred after the election? You are left to answer this question but know that Mehdi Karoubi still insists on reclaiming the rights of the oppressed. Such old, overused tactics may work to silence some, but they will not work on Mehdi Karoubi”

[Karroubi’s letter is dated September 10, 2009]

Full story

72 dead protesters

On September 4 Norooz news site published

- a list of martyrs that had been identified so far

The list has been compiled by the committee set up by Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to investigate the deaths and arrests in the unrest following the fraudulent election.

The list has been translated by homylafayette, who has done a great job adding photos, footage, and additional information in order to, as he says, elevate the individual victims beyond statistics. The blogpost will be updated when more information becomes available.

All these young beatiful people!

Mousavi’s 11th Statement

The Green Path of Hope

Full translation posted Saturday, September 5 in the blog Khordaad88

Some excerpts:

The introduction speaks about the “systematic violations, fraud and the bitter events” that have caused “a widening rift between the people and the ruling establishment”, but also about the “need to defend the essence of the Islamic Republic”.

“In the midst of our own state ... there are individuals who know that the only way they can remain in power is by creating crises and catastrophes and keeping away from any attempt to solve the problems - problems that they themselves have created.”

“A different approach” would be to believe “in the plurality and diversity of beliefs existent in the great, ancient and pious family which is Iran”. […] “The responsibility of those who claim to be religious is to create an atmosphere appropriate for growth and blossoming of humanity towards higher aims and progress,” towards a “peaceful “coexistence of tastes and attitudes, social layers, tribes, religions and beliefs that live in this great land”.

“Contrary to what the state propaganda machines project ... We want to preserve the Islamic Republic ... to revive the ethical identity of the ruling system ... a restoration of those forgotten objectives (the vision of the Islamic revolution).”

[In the current regime] “Islam itself is oppressed.” [The leaders] “call their own [personal] tastes and expediency, Islamic Text. ... They go as far that lying becomes an inseparable attribute of State Media and the ugliest immoralities (torturing and killing prisoners and other shameful acts which the pen hesitates to write) are considered signs of commitment to the Prophet’s [Muhammad] religion. [The prophet] who was elected to enhance moral virtues.”

They “are opposed to the people” and “throw the children of the revolution in prison to satisfy their illusions.”

(Follows a lenghty elaboration on the visions of the Green Path of Hope, which is not a political party but a social movement.)

(Finishes with 9 demands that must be met to solve the current crisis.)

“If a political faction whose delusion of power is founded on opposing the [will of] the public and their just rights has a desire to solve this crisis, the least they can do at this stage to achieve this [desire] is as follows:

• Form a truth finding commission and arbitration that is acceptable to all stakeholders in the tenth presidential election and investigate the crimes and fraud that were carried out and punish all wrongdoers.
• A revision of the election laws such that conditions are formed for fair and just elections which people can trust
• Identify and punish the parties involved in the atrocities that occurred in the aftermath of the election against the people in all police, military and media institutions.
• Attend to those who have suffered in the aftermath of the election, and the families of the victims. The release of all political activists and people who were arrested over the election, and put an end to their trial, redeem their dignity and put an end to the threats and harassments that they are still subject to, [harassments like] coercing them into giving up their rights and take back their complaints.
• Enforce article 168 of the constitution to define political crime, and try the political crimes in the presence of a jury.
• Guarantee the freedom of press, changing the biased behavior of National TV, removing restrictions imposed on political parties and groups, allowing different perspectives to be presented in the media, especially national TV. Reforming the national TV constitution such that it can be held accountable for its illegal actions.
• Put the created capacities to action in light of a reading from the 44th article of the constitution to create private television and radio.
• Guarantee the fundamental rights of people, the freedom to assembly and rallies by enforcing the 27th article of the constitution.
• Legislate a ban on the interference of military officials in political affairs and prevent intervention of military forces in economic activities.

Read the full text here

Minou

Another story about rape and torture (English subtitles)

Shajarian: Lay down your gun

@mousavi1388 Shajarian joins the Green Movement with a new masterpiece called put down the guns: http://bit.ly/s3rJi #iranElection

English translation of the lyrics posted here.

Saeeda Pour-Aghaie

- raped and killed in detention

Green Brief #63, August 30:

21. Saeeda Pour-Aghaie, a young girl, was raped and killed in detention. Confirmed reports say Saeeda was arrested by Basijis, from her home, for chanting Allaho Akbar from her rooftop. She was taken into detention, raped and then killed. Her body was burnt, except for her legs from her knees downwards, with a strong acid, to hide the evidence of her brutal ordeal.

Twenty days after her initial arrest, her mother was taken to the morgue and her body was identified. Her mother was not allowed to take her body for burial. She was later buried in the 302 section of Beheshte Zahra, in secret, without her family's knowledge.

Her family has been put under extreme pressure, to say the cause of Saeeda's death, was the result of complications arising from a kidney infection.

A picture of Saeeda and a full report in Farsi: http://www.mowjcamp.com/article/id/24124

22. At least two reliable sources, claim they have received reports, that unmarked graves in Beheshte Zahra's 302 section, are the graves of women, who have been raped and then killed, after being arrested for protesting. This could not be confirmed by other sources at this time.

Read more about Saeeda Pour-Aghaie on homylafayette’s blog

Amir Javadifar

- was beaten to death 24 years old

Amir was arrested on July 9. He was brought to the police station where he was beaten so badly that he was later taken to hospital. His family was informed. He had jaw, nose, facial and arm injuries. A head scan showed no brain injury, but his family wanted a second opinion. The police agreed and they took him to Laleh hospital where he was checked and released to the police the next morning.
The police brought him back to the police station. Next he was moved to the Intel police station and then to an unknown location. Those arrested on July 9 were moved either to Evin or to Kahrizak. Their familiers were told to check back in ten days. Amir's family went back to Evin but his name was

not on the list of Evin or Kahrizak prisoners.
From July 9 to July 28 Amir's family was being told by court that his interrogation was almost finished. On July 29 they were told to go to Kahrizak morgue, where they identified his body. Amir's body had been moved to the morgue four days after his arrest, cause of death unknown. It was kept at Kahrizak morgue for weeks, while the family was given false info.

Source: @persianbanoo on Twitter, August 31

Read more about Amir at Iranbodycount

Edit, Sept 14:

@iranproxy: Amir Javadifar Tribute on today his birthday: http://bit.ly/flmG3 -please RT in memory of Amir #iranelection