Rezaei urges trial of officials guilty of abuse

In a Wednesday morning meeting with a group of leading Iranian human rights attorneys, Mohsen Rezaei said that support for government officials and institutions was not enough, adding that efforts to “correct their behavior” was also necessary. 

“Supposing that the reports you have gathered about the mistreatment of people in the streets and prisons are accurate, then, at the very least, all officials who have authority must be dismissed and handed over to the courts,” said Rezaei.

“If just one officer commits an indecent act that is enough for us to call days of national mourning, not to mention a situation where shocking actions may have been carried out against a group of young people,” he added.

Rezaei, who is also a member of the country’s Expediency Council, went on to point out that the Islamic Republic’s “true asset has always been human and Islamic values.”

He then asked the lawyers for a copy of their report, while urging them to send a print to other officials as well.

Rezaei’s comments came amid circulating reports of sexual assault against prisoners detained in Iran’s post-election unrest.

Defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi was the first to raise the prisoner abuse issue in a letter addressed to the head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.

The allegations made by the Reformist cleric have been, however, strongly denied by senior officials such as Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

MJ/HGH

Source: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/103292.html