Iran acknowledges prisoners were beaten to death

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, The Associated Press, December 19, 2009

TEHRAN, Iran -- After months of denials, Iran acknowledged Saturday that at least three people detained in the country's postelection turmoil were beaten to death by their jailers. 

The surprise announcement by the hard-line judiciary confirmed one of the opposition's most devastating and embarrassing claims against authorities and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces that led the crackdown after June's disputed presidential vote. […]

The judiciary also said it has charged 12 officials at Kahrizak prison - three of them with murder, but it did not identify them. The prison, on the southern outskirts of the capital, Tehran, was at the center of the opposition's claims that prisoners were tortured and raped in custody.

Full story in Washington Post.  

We will rape your son!

Today Human Rights Activists in Iran

- published a text version of an interview with a detainee.

He was arrested by plain clothes forces and special guards officers on his way home from work and brought to Meghdad Basij Station together with his friend. Less than 24 hours later, they were hand cuffed and blindfolded and taken to Kahrizak prison, and locked up in an underground container.

Two hours later the interrogations started. He was not allowed a lawyer and was not told what he was charged with, but they wanted him to confess to his participation in the protests. He spent more than 58 days in the underground container - along with 75 other people.

Read his story about the interrogations, the hygienic and food conditions, and the physical and psychological torture he endured during his detension.

And: Has Kahrizak prison really been closed?

Why was Kahrizak prison closed?

via @persianbanoo, August 26

The next 10 tweets are a report on why Kahrizak prison was closed.

• Despite reports that Kahrizak was closed after revelation of Mohsen Rohalamin’s torture and murder
• Other factors may have been involved in closing Kahrizak prison
• Dr. Rohalamin, Mohsen's father, a prominent physician and an insider with high level connections
• After Mohsen's death, Dr. Rohalamin's high level friends started investigating Kahrizak
• In the meantime an un-named journalist had been detained and released from Kahrizak
• This journalist's accounts of Kahrizak may have played an important role in closing this center
• Aftr a high level Government official intervention this journalist was released from Kahrizak after 2 weeks
• In a meeting with this Official, when the journalist was asked to sit down, he replied he can not
• He told the Official, while in Kahrizak he had been repeatedly raped with a baton
• The Official became very disturbed. Two days later the order for closing Kahrizak was issued