NCRI – The U.S. State Department's annual human rights report examined the worsening human rights record in the country.
"The government's poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous serious abuses," said the report, the first published under the new administration of President Barack Obama.
According to the State Department, Iran "severely limited" the democratic process, while security forces were guilty of "politically motivated violence, including torture."
It consists of many parts including: Arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life, disappearance, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prison and detention center conditions, role of the police and security apparatus, denial of fair public trial, political prisoners and detainees and…
Political prisoners and detainees
The report says, "Exact data regarding the number of citizens imprisoned for their political beliefs were not available; however, human rights activists estimated the number in the hundreds. Although there were few details, the government arrested, convicted, and executed persons on questionable criminal charges, including drug trafficking, when their actual "offenses" were political. The government charged members of religious minorities with crimes such as "confronting the regime" and apostasy, and conducted trials in these cases in the same manner as it would treat threats to national security."
The mullahs' regime holds many prisoners for years under charges of sympathizing with "outlawed groups" such as the People's Mojahedin organization of Iran (PMOI), the State Department report on Iran said.
On July 19, a court sentenced political prisoner Behrouz Javid-Tehrani, first arrested during the 1999 student uprising, to three more years in prison following a secret trial in which he did not have legal representation. According to human rights organizations, he was convicted of having contact with foreign opposition groups. At the time of the most recent conviction, Javid-Tehrani was in solitary confinement in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. Javid-Tehrani alleged security agents severely tortured him on numerous occasions while he was incarcerated.
In November supporters of dissident cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi reported that prison authorities severely beat him and moved him from Evin Prison to an undisclosed location despite appeals for release on medical grounds. Police arrested Boroujerdi at his home in 2006, reportedly after he had come under increased pressure from the government for his belief that religion and the state should be separated. Boroujerdi has been arrested and imprisoned several times since 1992 and claimed he was tortured and threatened with execution. In October authorities also rearrested nine of 70 of his followers who were originally arrested in late 2006 and released in 2007.
On November 8, according to press reports, authorities rearrested Ali Nikunesbati, spokesman for the student group Office for Consolidating Unity. Nikunesbati's father said security agents also confiscated his computer and personal documents from his home. In 2007 security forces detained Nikunesbati twice for his role in student protests.
