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Iran candidate says prisoners tortured to
death
Thu Aug 13, 2009 3:11pm EDT
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi
said on his website Thursday that some of those arrested after the June
presidential election were tortured to death, but other inmates defended
their treatment.
Authorities were not immediately available for comment, but state television,
in a report on a parliamentary committee investigating claims of prison
abuse, has shown people testifying that they were treated properly.
“I am not under pressure. I am satisfied with the conditions provided by the
jail authorities, said a young detainee in Tehran's Evin prison, where many
political prisoners are held.
Expanding on allegations he made Sunday that some arrested protesters,
men and women, had been raped at Tehran's Kahrizak prison, Karoubi said
detainees had reported being forced to go naked, with prison guards riding
on their backs.
Still others were piled on top of each other, also naked.
“We observe that in an Islamic country some young people are beaten to
death just for chanting slogans in (the post- election) protests,” Karoubi's
Etemademelli website said.
“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,” he added.
His allegation about prisoners in Kahrizak prison being raped was rejected
by Iranian authorities as “baseless.”
Many of the post-election detainees were held in the south Tehran 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.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ai Khamenei ordered the closure of the Kahrizak
prison last month.
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.
The disputed election was followed by the worst unrest in Iran since its
1979 Islamic revolution.
“PRESIDENTS WORD LIKE GOD'S”
A senior Iranian cleric seen as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor said obeying
the head of government was like obeying God, the moderate Etemad-e
Melli newspaper said.
Firebrand cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi believes the
authority of Khamenei comes from God, not from the people.
Khamenei presides over a complex political and clerical system known as
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Iran candidate says prisoners tortured to death I Reuterscom http://www .rei lers .con'Vardc lePrint?arfic le ld—USHAP23304820090813
vail-ye faqih, or religious jurisprudence, with the president in charge of the
day-to-day governing of the country.
“When a president is endorsed by the vaii-ye faqih, obeying the president is
like obeying God,” the daily quoted Mesbah-Yazdi as saying.
Mesbah-Yazdi's followers have great sway among iran's elite Revolutionary
Guard and the Basij voiunteer paramilitary force.
The Guard's political chief Yadoilah Javani has cailed for defeated
candidates Karoubi and Mirhossein Mousavi as weil as moderate former
President Mohammad Khatami to be put on trial for inciting eiection unrest.
At ieast 200 peopie still remain injali, inciuding senior moderate poilticians,
activists, lawyers and journaiists.
Khamenei swiftly endorsed Ahmadinejad's re-eiection after the June 12
presidentiai vote.
The losing candidates say the poli was rigged, a charge denied by iran's
authorities, including Khamenei, who has accused Western powers of
fomenting the vote unrest.
Moderates say 69 protesters were kiiled in the demonstrations,
contradicting the official report of 26 deaths.
FRENCHWOMAN'S RELEASE EXPECTED
iran's police and security forces quelied the protests and the judiciary has
now begun mass triais of more than 100 moderates, despite the damage it
might inflict on the government's legitimacy and relations with the West.
The United States, its European allies and Iranian moderates have
denounced the mass trials as a “sham.”
Among those being tried are French teaching assistant Clotlide Reiss and
two employees of French and British embassies in Tehran, accused of
espionage and taking part in a Western plot, charges France and Britain
say are baseless.
Reiss's father said Thursday he hoped his daughter would leave prison later
in the day, after France agreed to provide baii for her conditionai release.
The failout from the post-eiection unrest further ciouds prospects of iran
accepting U.S. President Barack Obama's offer of direct talks on iran's
nuclear program. Tehran denies that It has nuciear arms ambitions.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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