Monday, August 10, 2009

Iran admits election demonstrators were tortured

Senior police commander says head of Tehran prison dismissed after evidence of abuse but denies anyone died

The Iranian chief analyst of the British embassy in Tehran, Hossein Rassam, during a trial of opposition protesters. Photograph: EPA

Iran's police chief admitted yesterday that protesters who were arrested after June's disputed presidential election had been tortured while in custody in a prison in south-west Tehran. But he denied that any of the detainees had died as a result.

General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam said the head of the Kahrizak detention centre had been dismissed and jailed. "Three policemen who beat detainees have been jailed as well," the official IRNA news agency quoted Moghaddam as saying.

Human rights groups had previously identified at least three detainees they said had died after torture at Kahrizak, which was closed last month on the orders of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Moghaddam denied that the abuses were responsible for any fatalities there, claiming that an unspecified "viral illness" had caused the deaths.

His admission marked the second occasion in as many days that a senior official had accepted that some criticisms levelled at the regime were well-founded, suggesting growing doubts and uncertainty within the embattled regime.

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1 comment:

airJackie said...

We'll never hear the US admit we tortured detainees who were woman and children. Iran has it's own set of laws and we might not like them but it's there country. What makes the US look stupid is we say one thing and attack other countries for their actions while we do the same and worse. In time Americans will learn the real horror of Gitmo and how many woman and children were tortured/raped to death.