ΔΙΕΘΝΗΣ ΑΜΝΗΣΤΙΑ
- 27 Apr 2023
- international
Children and young people were among those tortured by Iran's security forces during the country's bloody crackdown on mass protests since September, Amnesty International has said in a report released to the public.
Children have suffered beatings, whippings, electric shocks to the genitals, rape and other forms of sexual abuse by members of law enforcement and secret services since the protest movement took place in the Islamic Republic, the non-governmental human rights group said in the text.
The use of methods of "unthinkable cruelty" against the youth by the authorities was intended to prevent them from protesting, Amnesty believes.
"It is appalling that state officials abuse their power in such a way, at the expense of vulnerable and frightened children, causing extreme pain (…) to them and their families, leaving them with deep scars, physical and mental," said Dieter Karg , Iran specialist at the German branch of Amnesty International.
In its report, the NGO speaks of violence against children and young people already immediately after their arrest, starting with beatings in authorities' vehicles.
In prisons, children were given electric shocks, forced to take pills whose active substance and what effects they had, and were constantly threatened, according to the text.
Before the children were released, prison guards threatened to arrest their parents and other relatives if they protested their treatment.
Some of the children who suffered torture were as young as 12, according to Amnesty International, based on the testimonies of dozens of prisoners and their relatives.
The nearly six-month-old protests in Iran erupted after the death of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsha Amini, at the hands of morality police after she was arrested in September for violating the strict dress code imposed on women in the Islamic Republic.
As the mass mobilizations against the clerical regime mainly involved young people under the age of 25, Amnesty makes the assumption that thousands of children were arrested.
A few days ago, the judicial system in Iran revealed that over 22,000 people have been brought in in recent months. Most are said to have been released, but there is no official data.
Amnesty International called for the immediate release of those minors who remain in detention and demanded that the international community guarantee that Iranian officials responsible for torturing children are held accountable.
"As there is no possibility of independent investigations into the torture of children in Iran, we call on all states, including the German government, to exercise their global jurisdiction" and bring responsible Iranian officials to justice, Mr. Carg.
