Iran rape claims rejected

13 Aug 2009, 11:06 am   -   Source: AFP
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Defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi says women and young boys held in detention have been savagely raped (Getty).

Defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi says women and young boys held in detention have been savagely raped (Getty).

The Iranian government has dismissed accusations that people detained for protesting recent elections have been raped in custody.

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Iran's powerful conservative camp has rejected claims that election protesters were raped in custody and issued a stern warning to opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi for raising the allegations.
  
As the political turmoil raged on, lawmakers urged Iran to review ties with Western nations they accuse of "meddling" in its affairs, saying the United States, Britain and France was backing opposition groups.
  
"The issue of detainees being sexually abused is a lie," parliament speaker Ali Larijani told the assembly, the official IRNA news agency reported.
  
"Following an investigation of detainees in Kahrizak and Evin prisons, no cases of rape and sexual abuse were found," he said, referring to the jails where most people arrested after the June election were initially detained.

Letter written
  
Defeated presidential candidate Karroubi claimed in a letter to powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani that several protesters had been raped and called for an investigation.
  
"A number of detainees have said that some female detainees have been raped savagely. Young boys held in detention have also been savagely raped," Karroubi said in a letter dated July 29.
  
His allegation surfaced as the Islamic republic continues to battle a damaging political crisis triggered by the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which the opposition claims was rigged.
  
Larijani issues a stern warning
  
"This is also a warning to politicians to take care and not to make any claims to the media before a proper investigation is done so that it is not exploited by foreigners," he said.
  
But a leading pro-opposition organisation, the Organisation of Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen, reiterated the allegation later, comparing the treatement of prisoners in Kahrizak to that in Iraq's notorious formerly US-run Abu Ghraib prison.
  
"Any measures to probe the violations committed in the past two months, and above all in the Abu Ghraib of Kahrizak, will be incomplete and will not allay concerns if one does not hold to account Interior Minister (Sadeq Mahsooli) and the president as the main officials responsible," it said.

Mass protests result in thousands of arrests

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of defeated candidates took to the streets of Tehran to protest at Ahmadinejad's victory, which has bitterly divided the country's clergy and the ruling elite.
  
An aide to Ahmadinejad's main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi has reportedly said that 69 protesters were killed in the unrest, more than double the official figure of about 30 people.
 
About 4,000 opposition supporters, including reformists and journalists, were also arrested, officials said. Most have been released, but around 200 remain behind bars.
  
At least 110 have also been put on trial, including French woman lecturer Clotilde Reiss and local staff with the British and French embassies, triggering outrage in the West.
  
Mousavi himself said on Wednesday "show trials" serve only the interests of foreigners, his website Ghalamnews reported.
  
"What serves the interests of foreigners: the people's protest movement based on the constitution... or show trials where children of the revolution are seated next to the hated hypocrites?" he asked.
  
The opposition’s People's Mujahedeen are ‘hypocrites’
  
Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said hearings in the Reiss trial had now concluded but that she would remain in custody unless the judge decided to grant bail.
  
Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was also among those detained during the post-election unrest, was visited by his mother in Tehran's Evin prison on Wednesday, his lawyer Saleh Nikhbakht told AFP.
  
More than two-thirds of the 290 MPs in the conservative-dominated parliament issued a statement on Wednesday condemning "meddling" by Washington, London and Paris.
  
"(We) strongly condemn these rude interferences and urge the government and the president to readjust ties with these countries according to their behaviour so they will know Iran's response will not be limited to words."
  
A prominent hardline cleric who is regarded as Ahmadinejad's mentor also warned against moves to try to undermine supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's position.
  
"When the president is endorsed by the leader, obeying him is similar to obedience to God," Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi said.
 

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