NCRI – The clerical regime has escalated torture and persecution of prisoners. Besides political prisoners, ordinary prisoners are also treated brutally and a number of them have been murdered in recent weeks. The regime has declared the cause of most such deaths as suicide or death due to excessive use of narcotics.
On August 11, Hassan Ghashgaii, 35, held in the infamous ‘doghouse’ solitary confinement in Ward 1 at Gohradasht Prison in Karaj, died after few hours being in coma due to lengthy tortures while his hands and feet were tied and blindfolded. Ghashgaii was arrested in Varamin on the charge of confronting agents of State Security Force (SSF). After five years in prison, he was transferred to solitary confinement because of his protests against brutal behavior of jailers.
On August 22, another prisoner by the name of Bahman Massoudi passed away in solitary confinement of Orumiyeh prison due to blows of baton by a henchman identified as Khanzadeh. His mother, tormented by this crime, set herself ablaze in front of Orumiyeh Central prison and died few days later.
In Ahavaz, in the last week of August, Shahin Rajabi Moorkani, 28, was murdered under torture after eight years of imprisonment. He was arrested in 2002 after his clash with agents of SSF. Three weeks ago, he was taken to the notorious torture chamber called Karoon Operation Center that is run by Ahvaz SSF.
In Kamyaran, west of Iran, a young man by the name of Gholamreza Bayat was beaten up after he was arrested. He passed away on August 29 due to internal hemorrhage.
The Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights organizations, particularly the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and rapporteurs for arbitrary arrests and torture to condemn these brutal crimes and to adopt urgent measures to save the lives of prisoners in Iran. It also calls for dispatch of international fact finding mission to Iran to investigate the state of prisons.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 10, 2010
