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| Iran: UN experts condemn alleged torture of prisoners |
| 2009-08-14 |
| [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. |
| Posted by:Fred |