Prison guards are said to show “no mercy” to the demonstrators in Iran. According to media reports, they are being brutally tortured – physically and psychologically.
After weeks of research, NDR, WDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) report that protesters in prisons are being systematically tortured both mentally and physically. More than a dozen Iranians who have been arrested since the beginning of the protests told the research group about broken bones and psychological violence, among other things.
A young woman explains how so-called security forces arrested her and a friend, took her mobile phone and blindfolded her. It is believed that several men stepped on the two young women and injured them with electric batons. Her entire right leg had turned blue. The young woman had prepared leaflets the night before to encourage people to protest. In the middle of the night she was able to leave the police station together with her friend.
Iranians report sexualized violence as a method of torture
Many of the Iranians also report to the research network about torture with electric batons and whipping with water hoses. Many of them also speak of psychological violence. They were threatened with rape, the death penalty or beatings. A young man tells NDR, WDR and SZ that he heard the screams of the tortured people: “It was to make you afraid and admit everything.” The German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who was imprisoned in Iran, also experienced torture, his daughter reported in an interview with t-online. Read more about it here.
Three of the Iranians also report sexualized violence. People are said to have been tied to pieces of furniture and raped with rubber truncheons. At the end of November, the US television station CNN published research on sexualized violence in Iranian prisons.
Escaped jailer confirms reports
CNN reported, among other things, on 20-year-old Armita Abbasi, who was taken to a hospital in Karaj, about 40 kilometers west of Tehran, by police officers in October shortly after her arrest. According to the report, there were traces of brutal multiple rapes. In addition, the police officers had put pressure on the treating physicians to officially attribute the injuries from the rapes to a point in time before their arrest.
An escaped prison guard confirmed the allegations of torture to NDR, WDR and SZ. He worked in various Iranian prisons for more than ten years. People were whipped there several times a day, and he was instructed to show “no mercy” to the protesters. At some point he couldn’t stand it any longer and fled, the guard says.
The research association has a confidential status report from the Federal Foreign Office from the end of November, which confirms the findings of the research. Accordingly, there are “numerous reports of forced confessions through torture and psychological pressure”.
Since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini in September 2022, there have been nationwide protests against the government. The authorities are cracking down on the demonstrators, so far four death sentences have been officially carried out and over 19,000 people have been arrested, reports the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
