Iran: The IHRDC Report on Violence and Suppression of Dissent

Yesterday, three days after a Human Rights Watch report on the same topic (see separate entry), the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center released its initial findings, "Violent Aftermath: The 2009 Election and Suppression of Dissent in Iran":

INTRODUCTION

On June 13, 2009, the day after the tenth presidential election in the Islamic Republic of Iran, demonstrations erupted in cities across the country. Demonstrators protested what they viewed as widespread fraud—calls of “Where is my vote?” predominated. The Guardian Council had permitted only four men to campaign: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent; Mohsen Rezaei, a former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah), considered a conservative; Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister of Iran during the war with Iraq, considered a reformist; and Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of the Majlis, also a reformist.

Iran: Human Rights Watch Report on Post-Election Abuses (11 February)
The Latest from Iran (15 February): Withstanding Abuse

Mousavi had declared himself the winner late on Election Day. The government immediately announced that Ahmadinejad had won by 62 percent of the vote. The regime also responded by cutting off electronic communication avenues within Iran and with the outside world. As the week progressed, cell phone and internet services were regularly shut down and slowed. On June 16, the authorities announced that foreign journalists were forbidden from reporting from the streets, and that their visas would not be renewed. Hundreds of domestic journalists and members of the press were arrested and intimidated.



Despite these efforts, demonstrations continued throughout the country on an almost daily basis through the month of June. On at least one occasion, the crowd numbered in the millions. In response, the government confirmed that Ahmadinejad had won and unleashed the Sepah (commanded by Mohammad-Ali Jafari) and the Basij (headed by Hossein Taeb) upon the crowds. As the crowds became larger and persisted in exercising their rights to peaceful assembly, the security forces became increasingly violent.

Demonstrators were attacked, beaten and shot in the streets. Many demonstrators were killed in the street. Thousands were arbitrarily arrested—the Judiciary reported that 4,000 people were arrested in the initial weeks. Daily demonstrations finally slowed after a particularly harsh crackdown on June 20 during which at least thirty people were killed.

However, throughout the summer and continuing into the winter, demonstrators flooded the streets on remembrance days, and the security forces continued to brutally suppress all expressions of dissent. Objection to alleged fraudulent elections gradually developed into broader expressions of dissatisfaction with the government. Over the course of a few months, the protests became less focused on the election and more on the general repressive nature of the regime. On December 27, Ashura, reportedly hundreds of demonstrators were arrested.

The Iranian regime also arrested people who were not demonstrating but whom the government charged with fomenting a “velvet revolution.” The exact number of arrests remains unknown, but circumstantial evidence indicates that hundreds were arrested and detained merely for exercising their rights of association. The arrests captured broad segments of civil society, including leaders and members of political opposition and minority groups, members of the political establishment, lawyers, students, and academics. The arrests continued through the winter.

Many arrestees were threatened but released after a few days. However, many others faced torture, rape and sometimes death while in custody. Detainees were, and continue to be, subject to solitary confinement, lengthy interrogations, beatings, rape and other forms of torture. Many were not permitted contact with their families or lawyers, and many were coerced into providing public confessions. Some demonstrators were sent to the Kahrizak detention facility, where they were treated so brutally that the government ordered its closure and transferred detainees to Evin and other prisons. Three Kahrizak detainees died, due to lack of medical care, on the way to or shortly after arrival at Evin Prison. The families of many murdered demonstrators and detainees were denied permission to hold proper burial rites for their loved ones.

On August 1, a series of mass show trials began in Tehran. The first two were broadcast on Iranian television and showed hundreds of disheveled detainees dressed in pajama-like prison garb, looking dazed and confused. Although a list of defendants has never been made public, many were recognizable by the public including former vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi and Dr. Mohsen Mirdamadi, the secretary general of the Islamic Iran Participation Front. The mass show trials bore little resemblance to criminal trials, under Iranian or international law. At each, the prosecution read a political document accusing the detainees and others outside of Iran, including foreign governments, of fomenting a “velvet revolution.” The readings were followed by confessions by select defendants.

Since August, detainees have also appeared on television confessing to crimes involving national security, belonging to terrorist organizations and conspiring with foreign powers. On October 5, the government began announcing sentences. The first four were death sentences handed down to men who had been arrested before the elections. As of December 31, at least a hundred sentences of lengthy prison terms, flogging, or banishment have been announced. However, the identities of many of those detained and tried remain unknown.

This preliminary report that documents and analyzes the Iranian government’s brutal suppression of dissent following the June 12 election. To meet publication deadlines, it ends its coverage on December 31, 2009. However, the Islamic Republic’s suppression efforts continue to escalate, and Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) fully expects that in the coming weeks, months and years, further details will come to light.

This report begins with a brief description of the presidential election, which is followed by a catalogue of the regime’s brutal suppression of the demonstrations. The regime’s refusal to issue demonstration permits to opposition groups, its use of excessive force to suppress the demonstrations, and its murder of demonstrators violated the rights of the demonstrators to freedom of assembly, protection against the use of excessive force by law enforcement, and their right to life under Iranian and international law. The killing of demonstrators was simply murder.

The third section covers the arbitrary arrests of demonstrators and the brutal treatment they suffered while  imprisoned in violation of Iranian and international law. Demonstrators were imprisoned without charge, and once imprisoned, were not afforded fundamental due process, including contact with their lawyers and families. Detainees were mistreated, denied medical care, beaten, raped, tortured, and killed. The regime’s failure to inform families of the whereabouts of their loved ones also constituted forced disappearances in violation of international law.

This is followed by a section describing the arrest and imprisonment of large swaths of Iran’s political and civil society. The arrests, interrogations and torture of the non-demonstrators violated Iranian and international law for the same reasons these acts violated the rights of the demonstrators. Political detainees were held for extended periods of time, often in solitary confinement, with minimal access to family or their chosen counsel. Those who were assigned legal counsel were allowed little contact with their chosen lawyers. If it is found that the torture, killings or forced disappearances were widespread, systematic, and with the knowledge of the perpetrators, each also constitutes a crime against humanity.

The last section of this report describes the five mass show trials and the sentencing of both demonstrators and activists. The parading of detainees in mass show trials, and subsequent sentencing of election-related arrestees violated Iranian and international law, both of which require observance of basic due process, including presumption of innocence, and the right to an attorney of one’s choice, and prohibit reliance on forced confessions in criminal proceedings.

The responsibility for this brutal wave of suppression begins at the top of the Iranian regime with the Supreme Leader and flows down through Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the heads of the law enforcement organizations, including the Sepah [Islamic Revolution Guards Corps], the Basij and the police (NAJA), the heads of the Judiciary, and continues down through the ranks to the Basij on motorcycles running demonstrators down on the street, sadistic prison guards and other judicial employees. The perpetrators and their superiors are responsible under Iranian and international law.

Much of the material presented in this report is from thirty-two interviews conducted by IHRDC with activists, experts and victims of the government’s suppression. Most have chosen to remain anonymous for security reasons. Given the Iranian government’s concerted efforts to hide and distort the record, this report also analyzes and compares witness testimony with reports in the official Iranian press and the international press.

Read rest of report....

Iran: Human Rights Watch Report on Post-Election Abuses (11 February)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The nearly nine months since Iran's presidential election sparked widespread popular demonstrations against alleged vote-rigging have been among the most tumultuous in the history of the Islamic Republic, which marks the 31st anniversary of the revolution that paved the way for its establishment on February 11, 2010. This has been a period of repeated serious human rights abuses that include extra-judicial killings, violations of the rights to freedom of assembly and expression, and the prohibition of torture, not to mention arbitrary arrest and detention and countless due process violations.

Iran: The IHRDC Report on Violence and Suppression of Dissent
The Latest from Iran (15 February): Withstanding Abuse

In the two months immediately following the June 12 election, the government carried out a major campaign of repression that included mass detentions of protestors, political reform figures, and rights activists, culminating in public trials in August. November and December saw renewed attacks on protestors as large demonstrations commemorated significant dates in the history of the Islamic revolution and the Shia Muslim religious calendar.


This report brings together testimonies and information reflecting the continuing human rights crisis since the election and its sharply disputed results. Over the course of 5 months, Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with over two dozen individuals, including ordinary protestors, journalists, political figure and their families, and human rights defenders. The report's findings indicate a widespread governmental crackdown across various sectors of Iranian society. Although the government has acknowledged some abuses and even named responsible individuals, no one has been prosecuted for committing major human rights violations.

On June 12, 2009, Iran's incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stood for re-election against challengers Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mohsen Rezaii. Although the one-month campaign period produced some notable transparency, such as live televised presidential debates for the first time, the government mobilized its institutions and media resources to promote President Ahmadinejad and harass his opponents. The authorities closed reformist publications, blocked opposition websites, and disrupted SMS services prior to the election. Rival candidates' accusations of official favoritism and electoral meddling by the government came to a head on election day. After the announcement of preliminary results on election day, the three opposition candidates quickly charged that the authorities had rigged the voting in favor of President Ahmadinejad and later filed complaints with the Guardian Council. (The Guardian Council is an unelected body of six clerics and six jurists whose range of powers includes supervisory authority over presidential elections).

On June 13, following the government's announcement the previous afternoon that preliminary election results showed Ahmadinejad to be the winner, large numbers of protestors took to the streets. They gathered throughout Tehran and other major cities for the next several days. The demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful. However, police and security forces confronted protestors, including those who played no part in the occasional acts of vandalism that occurred, with batons, clubs, and in some cases live ammunition. State violence extended beyond demonstrations, with plainclothes andBasij paramilitary forces attacking student dormitories and staging nighttime raids in residential areas. Security forces arrested thousands of protestors in the course of these governmental crackdowns during the first week following the election.

In addition to massive detentions of ordinary protestors and peaceful activists, as early as the day after the election, authorities rounded up scores of well-known writers and political figures affiliated with the reform movement.  (The reform movement is a term dating to the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, who planned to bring about greater social and political freedoms. Since that time, the term is often broadly applied to include political figures and activists who advocate for change within the framework of the current governmental system.)

The worst abuses against ordinary protestors have taken place at police stations and detention centers, most notoriously at the Kahrizak detention center outside of Tehran. At least three detainees have died due to injuries sustained in Kahrizak. In August, authorities dismissed the director of Kahrizak and said that three guards would be prosecuted for prisoner abuse. In January 2010, a parliamentary panel investigated the deaths and allegations of torture and named former Tehran Prosecutor-General Saeed Mortazavi as the person responsible. Although the panel dismissed allegations of sexual abuse, it found that widespread violations had taken place in the detention center. However, neither Mortazavi nor anyone else implicated in the abuse has yet been prosecuted.

Authorities also abused detainees in Evin, a large prison complex where Human Rights Watch has previously documented systematic abuses.  In Evin, authorities held prominent political figures and activists, who gave confessions that appeared to have been coerced incriminating themselves and others of vaguely-worded political offenses. In August, the government held the first mass trial for over 100 reformists, with defendants confessing to having colluded to promote a "velvet revolution." After the first day of the trial, state television showed two of the defendants, Mohammad Ali Abtahi and Mohammad Atrianfar, denying that their confessions were coerced and claiming to have "changed" their opinions since they were detained. Testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch indicate that authorities coerced the detainees into providing these confessions. Families of detainees told Human Rights Watch that their relatives were put under severe physical and psychological pressure to produce self-incriminating statements.

Despite widespread repression in the weeks following the election, peaceful demonstrations and expressions of opposition continued. Former candidates and their supporters, primarily depending on the internet, have spoken out against human rights violations and called on the government to hold abusers accountable. In response, the government harassed and intimidated activists, journalists, and human rights defenders, detaining many, subjecting some to trials that did not meet international fair trial standards, and convicting others solely for exercising their right to peaceful dissent.

During the fall and winter of 2009, government harassment of peaceful protestors in response to major demonstrations such as those held on November 4 (the anniversary of the takeover of the US embassy in 1979), December 7 (National Student Day), and in conjunction with the Shia religious holiday of Ashura on December 27 continued unabated. Attacks by security forces acting alongside the Basij injured many and killed at least 8. Authorities also arrested scores of additional activists and protestors, and threatened to try some on charges that carry the death penalty. As of February 10, the government had executed 2 persons who had in fact been detained prior to the elections on charges ofmoharebe (enmity with God). In January, the government sentenced 9 others to the death penalty on the same charges and put on trial 16 others on charges that carry the death penalty upon conviction.

Key Recommendations to the Government of Iran

• Establish an independent and impartial fact-finding commission to identify those who ordered the crackdown on post-election protesters and those responsible for serious human rights violations.


• Investigate promptly and impartially all allegations of torture or ill-treatment in detention.


• Ensure that victims of torture or ill-treatment receive appropriate compensation from the government.


• Release all detainees held for exercising their right to free expression, assembly, and association

Read rest of report....

Iran: Mehdi Karroubi's 1st Interview After 22 Bahman (13 February)

Mehdi Karroubi answered a series of questions put to him by the Sunday Telegraph of London. Many of his points are familiar; however, this indication of opposition strategy may be significant: "We will ask, in accordance with article 27 of constitution, to have a peaceful demonstration, in order to show the people's support for our movement."

The Sunday Telegraph: Last month somebody fired a gun at you and last week you were assaulted. Are you still in danger?

Mehdi Karroubi: Yes. I'm 73 years old. As a cleric and a close friend of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, I have a legal, national and religious duty to do something for our people.

When I was 25 years old I participated in the revolution alongside Ayatollah Khomeini. Since that time until now I have done what was needed no matter the danger or the price I had to pay.

The Latest from Iran (13 February): Re-assessment, Renewal

ST: After the security forces stifled your protests last week, what will be the opposition's new strategy?


MK: At the moment there is no official rally we are asking the people to attend. We will ask, in accordance with article 27 of constitution, to have a peaceful demonstration, in order to show the people's support for our movement.

If they don't let us have that, we will have to try different methods to talk and educate the people about the peace movement and extend it to the whole country.

We want to maintain our peaceful demands in accordance with the constitution. But we don't want the people to pay the high price.

Presently the state shows less tolerance and tries to use violence against the people. Many young people are in prison and have received unacceptable sentences. There is no way to back away from the people's rights. But we have to find a proper way to ask the people's rights and put the revolution back on track, without letting them divert the Islamic republic from its main goals with great cost to the people.

And we will talk to the people about our programme in the near future. Mr Mousavi and I will have a meeting in the near future and will let the people know about our strategy and work. The meeting might be sometime this week.

Our priorities are the release of the many prisoners without any condition and free elections without monitoring by the Guardian Council. The last thing is the creation of a good atmosphere for a free press recognition of the right to criticise. The current atmosphere, dominated by fear and police control must be removed and we must create a situation where all the people come together and present their ideas about the future of the state. It is the people's right to choose. In the view of Khomeini, the most important thing was the vote of the people.

ST: When did you last meet the supreme leader and what did you discuss with him?

MK: The last meeting with the leader was before the June election. We discussed the government's internal problems and foreign policy. Also I criticised president Ahmadinejad's foreign policy and its effect on our national security and our national interests. I also asked about his ideas about the elections and he said: "there is no difference for me between the candidates."

ST: Do you believe that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the legitimate president of Iran?

MK: There's a difference between legitimacy and reality. In reality he's head of executive power. But in my opinion, legitimate governments must be appointed by the people in fair and widely supported elections. Our constitution also emphasises this point. We recognise him as the head of the government, which controls everything from the budget to municipal and foreign policy. He must provide the proper response in regard to duty.

But our problem with his legitimacy remains. If we want to have a peaceful demonstration, we have to ask permission of the government. We recognise them only as the dominant power, not as the legitimate government.

ST: Have you and the other opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, discussed the possibility of a negotiated settlement with Mr Ahmadinejad?

MK: At the moment we are working on the issue. But the lack of respect and recognition of the people's rights has created many problems inside Iran. We haven't appointed anybody for negotiation with Mr Ahmadinejad, but the most important thing is respect and understanding of the people's needs and rights.

ST: Why have elements of the security forces attacked peaceful protesters?

MK: The political life of some people, including some military men, depends on crisis. They deny the people's rights and try to dominate all Iranian spheres - economic as well as political. They even try to deny our rights under our constitution. In this situation, they try to create crisis and leave the country in crisis. For this reason they don't want the people to follow their rights in a peaceful manner and a peaceful atmosphere.

ST: Do you have any news of the senior reformist politicians who are still in prison?

MK: Many reformist politicians and former members of parliament are still in prison. We hope they will soon be free. Many reformist politicians prefer to be silent because if they're talking they have to go to jail.

ST: You have said that senior clerics are worried about the situation. What will they do about it?

MK: It's true the senior clergy worry about the situation. They worry about the state and future of the Islamic republic of Iran. Iran is now an Islamic state, based on both republican and Islamic ideals. They don't want any damage to the people's belief in Islam. For us, and the senior clergy in Qom, if there is damage to the Islamic state, it is direct damage to Islam. The late Ayatollah Khomeini said that if we receive damage to the state, it's a direct damage to people's view of Islam.

The people in Qom are worried about the future of the state, its stability and also about the spiritual health of Islam among the young generation. There is no contradiction between Islam and human rights in view of many scholars. But in view of the state's behaviour, many people have now started to think there is, and that it is not possible to have both under Islamic laws.

Iran: The "Reconciliation" Proposals of Karroubi's Etemade Melli Party

Hours after Mehdi Karroubi made his latest high-profile declaration sanctioning protest on 22 Bahman (11 February) and criticising the Government, his party Etemade Melli have consolidated the initiative by posting their proposals for reconciliation:

1. The immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners;

2. Providing an open atmosphere for the media and press, recognising criticism, offering justice in use of the national media (state-run TV and radio) for all the levels of people and different political groups;

Iran Document: Karroubi’s Open Letter for 22 Bahman (6 February)

3. Removing the obstacles against the activities of different political organisations, groups, and parties;


4. Removing the security atmosphere, the police state, and the environment of fear;

5. Removing the appointed oversight of elections (Guardian Council), holding free elections, and preventing fraud in elections;

6. Preventing [the interference of] armed forces in economic and political affairs of the country;

7. Putting an end to the shameful analogies made by some media outlets and authorities between the true owners of the revolution --- honourable veterans of the Iran-Iraq war and allies of Imam Khomeini (the Green leaders and senior reformist figures) --- with terrorists who betray their homeland and nation, and using this comparison to lay the grounds for repression. These movements do not even show respect to Imam Khomeini and, to achieve their hideous goals, distort and selectively use Imam Khomeini’s remarks so that the family of Imam Khomeini has strongly objected to this as well;

8. Following justified methods in the judiciary and holding open trials with the presence of juries when dealing with political charges, carrying all the principles of the Constitution in these cases;

9. Holding a referendum to discover the clear and lawful opinion of the nation regarding some of the most important issues of the country.

The Etemad Melli party urges Grand Ayatollahs, religious figures, scholars and intellectuals, academics, students, and all different classes of the society to have a wise presence in all aspects [of Iranian life] and, by resisting any violation of the fundamental goals of the Islamic Revolution, make the conditions suitable for resolving the current crisis and not letting the Revolution get in the hands of deceitful and untrustworthy individuals.