[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi said on Thursday some of those arrested after the country's June presidential election were killed under torture, his website reported. "We observe that in an Islamic country some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans in (the post- election) protests," the Etemademelli website said.
Karoubi said on Sunday that some protesters, men and women, had been raped in detention. His allegation was rejected by Iranian authorities as "baseless."
" Some of the detainees said they were forced to take off their clothes. Then they were made to go on their hands and knees and were ridden (by prison guards) "
Defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi
He repeated the allegation on Thursday, calling for the formation of an independent fact-finding committee to review his evidence in "a calm atmosphere where relatives of detainees and freed protesters can talk".
"Some of the detainees said they were forced to take off their clothes. Then they were made to go on their hands and knees and were ridden (by prison guards)," Karoubi said. "Or the prison authorities put them on top of each other while they were naked," Karoubi added.
Many of the post-election detainees were held in south Tehran's Kahrizak prison, built to house people breaching vice laws. At least three people died in custody there and widespread anger erupted as reports of abuse in the jail spread.
The abuse allegations, also rejected by Tehran's police chief, have created a rift among hardline politicians, many of whom backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the closure of the Kahrizak prison last month.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A senior Iranian cleric says defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi must be prosecuted for "libeling the system", unless he can prove his allegations.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami on Thursday addressed the issue of a letter sent by Karroubi to Expediency Council head Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani in which the defeated candidate proposed an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse of post-election detainees.
"If a person libels someone with allegations of sexual abuse, then he deserves to be punished for libel," said the cleric.
Under Iranian law, the punishment for libel consists of 80 strokes of the lash.
"If someone libels the system by saying that rape takes place in prisons, then he must either prove it or, if he cannot, then the system must press charges and the public prosecutor must act," Khatami insisted in his address to the clerics of the Political-Ideological Organization of the Ministry of Defense, ILNA reported.
"If allegations are proven with witnesses, then, without any considerations, the perpetrators must be severely punished. But, what if they are not proven?" asked the member of the Assembly of Experts. "How long should the system remain silent, in the face of such attacks?"
The controversy surrounding the report of sexual abuse of prisoners has attracted much attention in Tehran.
"The people who informed me about these events hold sensitive positions in the country ... these officials told me of the things that happened in the detention centers... Even if one count of what is said is true, it would be a tragedy for the Islamic Republic," Karroubi had said in his letter.
"A number of detainees have said that some female detainees were raped savagely," he said. "Young boys held in detention have also been savagely raped."
Following the probe request by Karroubi, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani called for an inquiry into the report and assigned a special committee to investigate the issue.
On Wednesday, Larijani dismissed the allegations as "sheer lies", saying that a "precise and comprehensive" inquiry found no cases of sexual abuse. Larijani is among the officials who have demanded that Karroubi present evidence to prove his claims.
Majid Ansari, a member of Majma'e Rowhaniyoun-e Mobarez (the Combatant Clergy Association), has added to the controversy by telling IRNA that the issue was true.
"The very existence of such an issue (jail rape reports) has been confirmed and the report has been taken up with officials," the former vice president said.
On Tuesday, Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani demanded officials to respect the rights of the detainees.
Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani has reportedly responded to a letter by former Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi on 'jail rape' claims.
In a letter dated July 29 to Rafsanjani, the Chairman of Expediency Council, Karroubi, the Veteran Reformist figure, had urged a probe into reports of the sexual abuse of prisoners at the notorious Kahrizak detention center in southern Tehran, where he said several of both male and female detainees were brutally raped.
According to a report by Iranian daily Jomhuriye Eslami, upon receiving the letter from Karroubi, Ayatollah Rafsanjani sent it to outgoing Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi and called for an investigation into the issue.
Ayatollah Shahroudi reportedly responded to the letter, saying that such treatment had not happened in those detention centers that are under the supervision of the judicial branch.
The office of Ayatollah Rafsanjani then sent the letter by Ayatollah Shahroudi to Karroubi, according to the report.
"The people who informed me about these events hold sensitive positions in the country ... these officials told me of the things that happened in the detention centers that even if one count is true, it would be a tragedy for the Islamic Republic," Karroubi said in his letter.
"A number of detainees have said that some female detainees were raped savagely," he said, adding "Young boys held in detention have also been savagely raped."
Following the request to probe the issue, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani urged an inquiry to the report and assigned a special committee to investigate the issue.
On Wednesday, Larijani dismissed the allegation as 'sheer lies', saying that a 'precise and comprehensive' inquiry found no cases of sexual abuse. Larijani, then, called on Karroubi to present strong evidence to prove his claims.
The 'non-standard' prison of Kahrizak was shut down upon a direct order by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in July after reports surfaced about the mistreatment of detainees who protested against the result of the disputed presidential vote.
Amid controversies surrounding reports of the sexual abuse of prisoners, Majid Ansari, a member of Majma'e Rowhaniyoun-e Mobarez (the Combatant Clergy Association), told IRNA that the issue was indeed verified.
"The very existence of such an issue [jail rape reports] has been confirmed and the report has been taken up with officials," former vice president said without mentioning the name of any officials.
On Tuesday, Ayatollah Rafsanjani demanded officials to respect the rights of the detainees.
"Judgment and proxy as well as (protecting) the rights of the accused can provide guarantees for the presence of justice in the final verdict."
After the shutdown, the head of Kahrizak prison was dismissed and arrested for 'dereliction of duty'.
A Syrian national has been killed and two others have sustained injures after a cluster bomb exploded outside their home in eastern Lebanon. The three were Syrians, aged between 20 and 30, lived in the Rashaya district in the village of Yanta in Lebanon near the Syrian border, a security official said.
The incident took place a day after two young Lebanese brothers were injured by another cluster bomb, on the 60th anniversary of the Geneva conventions. The 1949 Geneva conventions formally outlined international law on the protection of civilians, detainees, the wounded and humanitarian workers in conflicts.
In May, Israel gave UN peacekeepers in Lebanon maps showing the location of over one million cluster munitions it had dropped during its devastating air war on Lebanon three summers ago. About 300 Lebanese civilians have since been killed or maimed by cluster bombs, according to the UN Mine Action Coordination Center.
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#1
ION CHINESE MIL FORUM > SYRIAN GOVERNMENT SAYS: US BEHIND XINJIANG RIOTS.
* Also, WAFF [old 02/09] > KUWAITI PROFESSOR SUGGESTS KILLING 300,000-PLUS AMERICANS IN A TERROR ATTACK [BIOWAR Attacks agz USA e.g. FOUR POUNDS OF ANTHRAX]; + LEBANESE ISLAMISTS FAVOR "OFFENSIVE JIHAD" TO CONQUER THE WORLD, INSPIRE ISLAM [Hizb Al-Tahrir]
[ADN Kronos] Three people, including a boy, were injured in a bomb explosion in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli on Thursday. Local media reported the bomb exploded in the area of Jabal Mohsen, home to the predominantly Sunni Muslim city's Alawite minority.
The small explosive device went off near the home of Rifat Ali Eid, a leading Alawite politician.
More than 20 people were killed in Tripoli last year in sectarian fighting between Alawites in Jabal Mohsen and the neighbouring Sunni district of Bab Tibbaneh.
The conflict, which lasted four months, was halted by a reconciliation agreement signed in September.
There are an estimated 100,000 Alawis in Lebanon, where they are recognised as one of the 18 official Lebanese sects.
[ADN Kronos] United Nations human rights experts voiced serious concern on Thursday over accusations of torture and rough interrogation tactics used against protesters jailed during the recent unrest in Iran following its disputed presidential election.
"No judicial system can consider as valid a confession obtained as a result of harsh interrogations or under torture," stressed Manfred Nowak, the UN's special rapporteur on torture.
The victims include lawyers, journalists and other human rights defenders, as well as members of the opposition who took to the streets to demonstrate over the results of the 12 June polls, according to the UN experts.
About 200 people arrested during the mass protests provoked by June's disputed election, remain in detention, around 100 of whom are facing trial. The charges include spying, conspiracy, rioting and vandalism.
The opposition alleges the polls were rigged to ensure hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, and wants the them annulled. The government says the election was the "healthiest" since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Nowak said he had brought more than 300 cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment to the attention of Iranian authorities. The allegations came from ex-detainees as well as relatives and lawyers of people still being held, Nowak said.
Most involved alleged torture at Evin prison in Tehran or at Kahrizak detention centre outside the capital, but also concerned police stations, according to Nowak.
"These confessions for alleged crimes such as threats against national security and treason must not, under any circumstances, be admitted as evidence by the Revolutionary Court," added El Hadji Malick Sow, vice-chairperson of the UN's working group on arbitrary detention.
Sow was referring to the court currently conducting trials of detained protesters, which have been described by some western and other commentators as show-trials.
Foreign media have been banned from covering the judicial proceedings and it is unclear whether the defendants have adequate legal counsel, noted the experts. They also include the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya.
The experts added that many detainees are kept without any communication with the outside world, without knowing the charges they face, medical treatment, legal assistance or family visits.
The UN rights experts said they continue to receive reports of people dying in custody, and whose families are given false or contradictory information regarding the cause of death.
Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has compared the mass trials of government opponents and public confessions to the tactics of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and other authoritarian rulers.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran has issued a new stamp to commemorate the massive turnout in the country's 10th presidential election held on June 12, 2009.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and senior Iranian officials attended a ceremony to unveil the new stamp on Thursday, Fars news agency reported.
Some 85 percent of Iran's eligible voters went to the polls in the latest presidential election.
During the ceremony, Iran's Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Mohammad Soleimani, said the Iranian nation's massive turnout was unparalleled in the world.
"The stamp will be the symbol of the Iranian nation's unity and their massive turnout in the presidential election," he added.
Samples of the stamp will be sent to the museums across the world, Soleimani noted, adding that 400,000 copies of the new stamp will be published over the next three months.
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A Syrian national has been killed and two others have sustained injures after a cluster bomb exploded outside their home in eastern Lebanon. The three were Syrians, aged between 20 and 30, lived in the Rashaya district in the village of Yanta in Lebanon near the Syrian border, a security official said. 
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran has issued a new stamp to commemorate the massive turnout in the country's 10th presidential election held on June 12, 2009. 
