Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Iran forcing confessions from political prisoners: rights group

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] People arrested in Iran after last month's disputed presidential election have been beaten, deprived of sleep, and threatened with torture in an effort to force false confessions, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW). HRW alleges that Iranian authorities are attempting to support accusations that the post-election civil unrest was orchestrated by Western powers by having detainees sign blank statements or give videotaped confession under duress. The report points to the cases of Amir Hossein Mahdavi, editor of the reformist newspaper Andishe No, and Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek correspondent, as emblematic of the situation in Iran. Both were arrested, detained, and subsequently confessed to their involvement in foreign-directed plots on state television, though supporters of both men have defended their innocence. Among the first-hand accounts gathered for the report is that of a 17-year-old who was beaten, sleep deprived, and given a blank confession to sign during four days in detention, and another describing the release of prisoners with "bruised faces and hands" from Tehran's Revolutionary Court. An eyewitness said that a list of people who were still detained was posted outside the court, suggesting that "their families should come back in a couple of weeks." HRW urged authorities to allow prisoners "to communicate with counsel of his own choosing" and "not to be compelled to ... confess guilt" in accordance with Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party. Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday warned Western nations to stay out of the country's internal affairs, claiming that relations with meddling countries would suffer Iran has been experiencing turmoil in Tehran and elsewhere since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner the election in June. Last week, a conservative paper called for opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and former president Mohammad Khatami to be tried for treason for their involvement in post-election protests. Also last week, the Iranian government barred the publication of a newspaper linked to candidate Mehdi Karroubi, attempting to quash political dissidence. The country's Guardian Council of the Constitution recently certified the contested results, officially sanctioning the re-election of Ahmadinejad. Authorities stated that those arrested would be dealt with by the court system. Human rights groups have viewed the arrests as political repression, saying that Iranian forces are using the protests to "engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals."

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 09, 2009 (boomark / email).