Iran receives harsh criticism from the human rights organization Amnesty International for the inhuman treatment of those arrested in connection with the large-scale demonstrations at the end of last year.
Torture, arbitrary arrests and dubious death sentences are some examples of what Amnesty calls “a catalog of shocking human rights abuses”.
That was when the internet came back after several days lying dormant in November last year as shocking images reached the outside world. Protesters brutally beaten, shot by snipers deployed on tall buildings and young men bleeding to death.
The demonstrations around Iran were crushed.
About 7,000 people were arrested, including children as young as 10 years old.
The arrests took place in hospitals where activists and protesters sought care, at funerals and memorial services.
Amnesty International has through interviews identified at least 500 protesters, journalists and activists who have been subjected to brutal treatment in connection with the protests. There are hundreds of cases sentenced to prison and whipping and several sentenced to death in lightning trials, often for an hour long and behind closed doors, where the sentences are based on confessions received after torture.
Torture has been widespread both in connection with arrests and in detention, so much so that Amnesty calls it a torture epidemic.
According to the report Prisoners have been beaten, electric shocks, nails pulled out, subjected to stressful positions, whipped, denied food and water and kept in isolation. Many have also been denied care.
In addition, the detainees were secretly abducted without being notified by relatives. Several have been missing for months.
The human rights organization now wants the UN to set up a commission of inquiry to try to bring those responsible to justice and prevent it from happening again.
Source: ICELAND NEWS