Iran: detainees subjected to torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions, warn UN Experts

December 9, 2009

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          12/9/2009 http://www. unhchr.ch/huricane/hurica...
          UNITED NATIONS
          Press Release
          Iran: detainees subjected to torture and ill-treatment
          to extract confessions, warn UN Experts
          GENEVA - Three independent United Nations experts expressed their serious
          concern over reports of detainees being subjected to torture and harsh
          interrogations to obtain confessions which are being used in the recently started
          trials at the Revolutionary Court.
          Malick El Hadji Sow, Vice-Chairperson of the Working Group on arbitrary
          detention; Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel,
          inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and Margaret Sekaggya,
          Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders said that the
          accused include lawyers, journalists and other human rights defenders, as well
          as members of the opposition, who have gone to the streets in protest of the
          presidential elections held on 12 June.
          “No judicial system can consider as valid a confession obtained as a result of
          harsh interrogations or under torture,” expressed the Special Rapporteur on
          Torture, Manfred Nowak, stressing the alarm raised by the three human rights
          experts over consistent allegations of severe practices of torture to obtain
          confessions.
          “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, the Vice-Chairperson of the
          Working Group on arbitrary detention.
          No foreign media have been allowed to cover the trials and it is unclear whether
          the defendants have adequate legal counsel. In addition, many detainees
          remain in incommunicado detention, without any charges and denied family
          visits, legal assistance or medical treatment.
          Reports of people who have died in custody continue to be received, and their
          families are given false or contradictory information regarding the cause of their
          deaths.
          This statement follows those issued on 19 June and 7 July, where independent
          UN experts voiced their grave concern about the use of excessive police force,
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          12/9/2009 http://www. unhchr.ch/huricane/hurica
          arbitrary arrests and killings in Iran and called upon the Government to uphold its
          international human rights obligations.
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