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| Iran Judiciary sets out in search of jail rape proof |
| 2009-08-16 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] Amid a persistent volley of opposition allegations that protestors had been raped in Iranian prisons, Iran's Judiciary tasks a committee to obtain evidence on the claims. Leading opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi broached the subject of "jail rape" in a letter to Head of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani on July 29. In his letter, Karroubi claimed that a number of detainees had informed him that several women and men, arrested over the course of post-vote demonstrations, were 'sexually assaulted' by their jailers. "A number of detainees have said that some female detainees have been raped savagely... teenagers held in detention have also been savagely raped," Karroubi said, adding that they were suffering from depression and serious physical injuries after the alleged assaults. The much-criticized allegations put forward in Karroubi's letter provoked mixed reactions inside and outside the country. Iran's former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi is said to be among the many who reacted to the claims of jail rape by saying that "in detention centers under the supervision of the Judiciary, no such treatment has been carried out." He, however, went on to urge an inquiry into the matter. The call for investigations comes as the allegations of rape provoked strong criticism in the country. In a sermon at Tehran University on Friday, Principlist cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami called Karroubi's claims of prison rape a "total slander against the Islamic establishment." He went as far to call for the opposition figure's prosecution, arguing that "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." Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said earlier in the week that a special Majlis (Parliament) committee tasked with probing the situation in Iranian prisons "should also look into whether 'jail rape' allegations are true or false." He then moved to defuse the controversy by saying "the issue of detainees being sexually abused is a lie." "On the basis of thorough and comprehensive investigations conducted about the detainees at Kahrizak and Evin prisons, no cases of rape and sexual abuse were found," Larijani said one day after he called for a probe. The Majlis speaker also encouraged the defeated presidential candidate to come forward with evidence proving his claims of "jail rape". Esmail Gerami Moqaddam, a spokesman for Karroubi's National Confidence Party (Etemad-e-Melli), said the former presidential candidate's would definitely provide evidence to validate his claims of jail rape. According to Fardanews, Ayatollah Shahroudi has called on the country's prosecutor general Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi to dispatch a committee to Karroubi's office to exchange views about the matter and obtain the cited evidence. Amid the already tense political situation in Iran over claims of prison rape, Karroubi has shown no sign of letting up on the issue as he went further on Saturday making fresh claims about "prisoner abuse." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 They have retained O.J. Simpson as their chief investigator. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-08-16 10:08 |