In a letter to the head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Leadership (which supervises the performance of the supreme leader of the Islamic republic), Mehdi Karoubi, the former Speaker of Iran’s Majlis (national assembly) and the protesting presidential candidate in the official results of the June 12 election has asked that the reports of rape of men and women who have been detained following the protests over the June 12 presidential elections be investigated.
In his letter, Karubi states that this information has been provided to him by individuals in ‘sensitive posts’ in the Iranian government and other prominent personalities, including Iran-Iraq war veterans.
The letter is important because this is the first time that an official at this level officially talks about rape of prisoners and asks for a clarification of the issue. This issue has been raised many times in the past, but only by non-officials.
The text of the letter has been published by Saham News, the official newspaper of the Etemad Melli party, founded by Karoubi. “Even if there is one single rape case, it is a disaster for the Islamic republic, exonerating many dictatorial regimes, including the former Shah’s,” the letter writes.
“I do not think that prisoners in the pre-revolution regime (i.e. the Shah’s) had seen or heard of such crimes,” Karoubi writes. “Some detained individuals have talked about such savage rapes that have left the women victims with physical scars and ruptures in their reproductive systems. At the same time, young imprisoned boys have been raped in such atrocious ways causing them depression, physical and psychological pain, leading to their complete withdrawal from everybody,” Karoubi writes in his letter.
Karoubi asks that this issue be investigated by an independent and transparent body appointed by the head of the Experts Assembly on Leadership.
The head of Etemad Melli party writes that upon hearing of such savagery, he was so shaken that he could not sleep that night. The Assembly of Experts is presided by former president and Majlis Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani. In his letter, Karoubi also asks Rafsanjani to raise the issue with ayatollah Khamenei so that the issue is investigated. He has also announced his readiness to take up the responsibility of undertaking such an investigation and even made a religious pledge to carry out such an enquiry without any pre-judgments and full respect for justice.
Karoubi says in the letter that only two copies of his request have been produced, one sent to Rafsanjani and the other to the leader.
Karoubi’s letter also talks of other crimes that have taken place in the country’s detention centers and lists, “unnecessary arrests, physical beatings, inflicting injuries on people to the point of killing the victims, raids on people’s houses, bloody confrontations at university dormitories, violent treatment of people, even women on the streets of different towns – in unprecedented levels,” many of which he says can be prosecuted. In his letter, Karoubi also states that had he not heard the stories of released detainees, he would not have believed the claims of others.
Till now, no official in the Islamic republic has acknowledged or responded to Karoubi’s letter. It should be noted that the issues that Karoubi raises in his letter have been reported by released detainees and published in some news reports as coming from independent individuals.
Last week, Rooz Online published an interview with a released prisoner from the Kahrizak prison in which the detainee talks of witnessing three incidents where young imprisoned men were raped in the prison.
