(Beirut) – Iran’s safety forces repressing widespread protests have unlawfully killed, tortured, sexually assaulted, and disappeared kids as a part of a sample of great violations, Human Rights Watch stated at present.
Human Rights Watch investigated abuses in opposition to 11 kids between September 2022 and February 2023, and documented new particulars about two beforehand reported circumstances.
Under Iranian regulation, kids could also be questioned solely by specialised kids’s prosecutors and tried solely earlier than youth courts. In one case involving 16 defendants, together with three kids, the pinnacle of Iran’s judiciary co-appointed a revolutionary courtroom decide, a cleric, as a youth justice decide. But not one of the defendants had been granted youth-court protections or allowed to rent their very own protection legal professionals, and the kids had been sentenced to 25 years in jail. Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the convictions of the three boys, citing an absence of proof, however ordered their retrials by the identical decide, who then sentenced them to three, 5 and 10 years in jail.
An Iranian lawyer stated that he was conscious of 28 kids who had been charged with “enmity in opposition to God” and “corruption on earth,” imprecise crimes that may be punished by dying or amputation of the appropriate hand and left foot.
“Children who’ve skilled horrific abuses in detention and at trial danger long-lasting hurt,” stated Bill Van Esveld, affiliate kids’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission ought to prioritize investigating these abuses and advocate a path to accountability.”
For detailed details about the kids’s circumstances, please see under.
Human Rights Watch contacted two kids and the kinfolk of six others, and 4 unrelated witnesses to shootings and beatings of kids, in addition to activists, journalists, and authorized consultants with firsthand data of abuses in opposition to kids in custody, unfair trials, and deadly shootings from September 2022 by means of February 2023. Human Rights Watch is withholding the names of the kids, their kinfolk, and different sources, and particulars that could possibly be used to establish them, to guard their safety, at their request.
Torture, Sexual Assault
An knowledgeable supply confirmed the arrest in January of a 17-year-old boy and his 19-year-old brother in Zahedan. They and others had been detained for 21 days within the Pastor detention middle, the place they had been tortured. Interrogators pressured the boy to denounce his father and supply details about him.
The boy later stated that he was unable to stroll as a result of he had been crushed on the soles of his toes. Officials additionally “touched [his] and the opposite [detainees’] genitals and gave them electrical shocks, and threatened them with rape with a plastic pipe, and with dying.” Another boy, 17, was additionally tortured, native information stories stated, and a media outlet near Iran’s intelligence businesses printed the boys’ coerced false confessions that they’d shot at police automobiles.
Detention middle officers frequently gave the detainees painkillers, and the primary youth collected the tablets and took them unexpectedly to attempt to finish his life. “He awakened in a hospital, then tried a second time by consuming cleaning soap and shampoo,” the supply stated. In November, a toddler reportedly took his life after being tortured in Tabriz.
In late January, the boy and others within the group had been transferred to the youth correctional middle in Zahedan Central Prison. Officials advised the primary boy and his brother that they’re “hostages in order that we will get your father,” the supply stated.
Shir Ahmad Shirani, the chief editor of the Haal Vash information web site, which has reported extensively on kids’s circumstances in Zahedan, advised Human Rights Watch in April that in nearly all circumstances he was conscious of, kids or adults taken to the Pastor detention middle for days after their arrest had been crushed, blindfolded, and saved in solitary confinement and never allowed telephone calls or guests. The police run the detention middle, however it has been utilized by different businesses, together with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence, he stated.
Torture, Sexual Assault
In early December, a 17-year-old boy, in addition to his cousin and two pals, had been arrested after Friday prayers in Zahedan by males in an unmarked automobile, a relative stated. The household discovered from the police that the youths had been held by the Revolutionary Guard, who detained them for 4 days and accused them of throwing stones and shouting slogans. There had been a protest in Zahedan that day, however the 4 pals had not participated and weren’t in a protest space when arrested.
They had been taken to the Revolutionary Guard constructing, the place they had been separated. The boy was blindfolded and advised to signal a paper, his relative stated. His arms had been tied behind his again, and he was frequently interrogated and crushed. Once, an interrogator punched him within the chest so exhausting that he was unable to attract breath, his relative stated. On one other event, he misplaced consciousness throughout a whipping.
Revolutionary Guard officers sexually assaulted him, however he didn’t wish to share particulars, his relative stated. He was denied meals and given inadequate water for 4 days, after which transferred to jail, the place his household was then allowed to bail him out pending trial.
“When he was launched, he was bleeding from the anus,” his relative stated. “His total physique had bruises, together with his shoulders, arms, chest, waist, and thighs, and he was not in a very good psychological state. He simply stared at one spot, in a daze, and to each query we requested, he solely responded that we needed to get his pals out of jail.”
They had been charged with rioting and collusion in opposition to nationwide safety. At their second listening to, the decide acquitted the 17-year-old however threatened that he can be given the dying penalty if he was arrested once more, the relative stated. As of mid-February, “He nonetheless wakes up at evening, shaking.”
Other latest allegations of torture of kid detainees in Zahedan, together with sexual assault, had been printed in Persian language media and on social media accounts. Haal Vash information company reported that on December 30 safety forces in road garments arrested Bismillah Barahoui, 17, and twins Ismail and Ibrahim Sargolzaei, 16. Revolutionary Guard forces reportedly tortured them in a detention middle, together with with electroshocks. As a consequence, Ibrahim was unable to talk to members of the family after he was transferred to the Zahedan Prison Correctional Center. The boys are accused of “carrying protest placards.”
Torture, Detention with Unrelated Adults
A secondary-school scholar stated she was arrested in November throughout a raid on a relative’s residence in western Iran. Several different kids had been additionally arrested apparently in response to an alleged arson try, which the safety officers “knew had nothing to do with us, however nonetheless, they beat us a lot to make us confess it was us that [started the] fireplace,” she stated. Armed safety forces “poured out” of a number of automobiles, entered the home, and violently arrested and injured her, she stated. Officers took her to the native intelligence workplace, the place she was tied to a chair, blindfolded, and a sack was positioned over her head.
Three officers interrogated her from 11 a.m. to three p.m., she stated, and beat her with a baton “on my sides, neck, and from the waist down, they usually used a whip on my ankles.” Two completely different officers got here and questioned her from 3 p.m. till 11 p.m., beating her if she didn’t reply or hesitated. She may hear different kids within the subsequent room, together with a 16-year-old boy she knew, who, she later discovered, was severely crushed and electroshocked.
That evening, she was transferred to a ladies’s jail, the place she was questioned each day for seven days, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., she stated. “Only throughout lunch time, they might ship you to the cell to eat one thing after which go once more for interrogation. They would hit you, however most of their harassment was utilizing insults, or asking every query 30 instances.” She remained within the ladies’s jail for a month, the place her household was allowed to name her twice a day. She was held with adults, in violation of Iranian and worldwide kids’s rights regulation.
She was launched on bail and is awaiting trial on accusations of “destruction, collusion, insulting the management, Molotov cocktail, writing slogans, uncovering the hijab, being a pacesetter, performing in opposition to the safety of the nation and the system, and inciting folks to kill,” she stated. “I’m underneath remark.” The Public Prosecutor’s Office reportedly refused to permit the household to rent a protection lawyer and stated she faces fees of moharebeh (enmity in opposition to God).
Fateme Fanaeian, an Iranian journalist, described two circumstances through which boys had been detained with unrelated adults, together with a 17-year-old from Karaj, who was badly crushed throughout arrest in November, threatened with rape by different prisoners, and later launched on bail. Another 17-year-old, from Shiraz, was pressured to signal papers with out figuring out what they had been and detained with three adults, Fanaeian stated.
Torture, Incommunicado Detention, Denial of Medial Care
Security forces “dragged [the boy] on the asphalt,” cursed and beat him throughout arrest, and detained him incommunicado for six days in an intelligence facility the place he was tortured to offer details about the relative who had fled, he stated. There are quite a few stories that Iranian safety forces detain kids incommunicado, together with women, typically for weeks.
The relative stated that on the intelligence facility,
They put needles underneath [the boy’s] nails and beat him loads, with punches, kicks, and batons. Then they took him to a room the place there have been two chairs and a desk. They tied him to the chair and he stated they introduced a syringe and put it in his arm. They didn’t say what it was however advised him, “If we inject you with this, you’ll both die or turn into paralyzed.” Three or 4 folks would beat him, then they would depart. After 5 minutes, new folks would come and beat him.
They additionally threatened to execute him. “They would come at 2 and three within the morning and wake him up and say, ‘Let’s go, we wish to execute you.’” After the boy’s launch, the relative stated, the boy “had nightmares, and when he awakened he simply seemed on the wall, he was depressed.”
Officials had advised the boy to cease going to high school – “they advised him, even when you get a grasp’s diploma we’ll ensure you don’t get a job,” the relative stated – and the federal government has since reduce off the social-welfare allowance of the boy’s household, citing his arrest. As a consequence, the boy dropped out of college and is working 10-hour shifts at a job, a relative stated.
Sexual Harassment, Beatings
In October, a lady and her pal, each underneath 18, deliberate to spray-paint slogans on the partitions close to Azadi Square in Sanandaj, however didn’t, when close by shopkeepers advised them to not, a relative stated. The women had been arrested whereas sitting within the sq. at round 2 p.m. by plainclothes brokers who put them in a non-public automobile, blindfolded them, and took them to a location the place they had been interrogated till 7 p.m. The officers alleged the women had been half of a bigger group accountable for spray-painting slogans and threatened them with 5 years in jail. The male officers advised the pal to “get up so we will get a have a look at you,” the relative recalled her saying. Officers checked all the images on her telephone and advised her to establish every particular person. When her household referred to as, officers advised her to say she was at a pal’s home.
The women had been launched later that day with out cost, however they’re underneath surveillance and frequently obtain calls from safety forces who warn them to not take part in protest-related actions, the relative stated.
A lady who was detained for a day in a police station in Sanandaj in late September described seeing two boys, about age 15, being crushed with batons throughout interrogation. The lady stated that peering beneath her blindfold she had seen that the boys “had been crushed loads, I may even see the baton [marks] on their faces, they had been all crying and pleading.” She stated {that a} mom and daughter, who was underneath 18, had been additionally crushed.
Torture, Lack of Medical Care, Threats with a Knife
Late one afternoon in October, males in civilian garments in a white automobile stopped a 13-year-old boy who was on his approach to the grocery store. The males checked his cell phone. Without provocation, one of many males hit the boy within the head with an object, knocking him out, a relative stated.
When he regained consciousness, he discovered himself at a facility often known as “Bashgahe Afsaran,” which individuals interviewed stated was utilized by the Revolutionary Guard. Officers interrogated the boy and realized that he was from a politically lively household. “They needed to know the place the household was,” a relative stated:
He didn’t know something, his mom strictly retains him out of that…. But they tortured and interrogated him on a regular basis. They tied him with anklets and handcuffs and threatened him with a knife. One of his ribs was damaged and his entire physique was bruised, however they threatened the household so dangerous that they didn’t dare to take him to the hospital after his launch and introduced a health care provider to see him at residence.
His household paid for his launch on bail.
Abusive Prosecutions, Unfair Trials
On November 3, protesters killed a member of the Basij paramilitary forces who was attacking protesters in Karaj. Sixteen folks, together with three 17-year-old boys, had been tried and convicted by a revolutionary courtroom, which arbitrarily refused to permit unbiased legal professionals to symbolize the folks on trial, in keeping with information stories and a lawyer following the case. Five had been sentenced to dying, and the others, together with the boys – Arian Farzamnia, Amin Mehdi Shokrollahi, and Amir Mehdi Jafari – had been convicted of enmity in opposition to God and corruption on Earth and sentenced to 25 years in jail and “banishment” or detention in a distant location. Jafari, like different defendants, was reportedly tortured throughout interrogation.
The Supreme Court accepted an enchantment from 5 defendants, together with the three boys, and ordered a retrial as a consequence of lack of ample proof, however returned the case to the identical decide, the lawyer stated. In April, the decide sentenced Farzamnia to 10 years in jail in Kerman, Shokrollahi to five years in Mashhad, and Jafari to three years in Qom.
Under Iranian regulation, arrested kids could also be questioned solely by specialised kids’s prosecutors. In this case, in keeping with stories on the trial in pro-government media, the General Intelligence Department interrogated them. The regulation additionally solely permits attempting kids earlier than provincial-level courts for youngsters, which offer elevated entry to members of the family and legal professionals and assure the kid’s privateness by closing trials to the general public.
The trial of the kids for “corruption on earth,” a imprecise cost, additionally seems to be abusively extreme, as a result of the Iranian legal code limits legal responsibility to “an individual who extensively commits felonies in opposition to the bodily entity of individuals or inner or worldwide safety.”
Lethal Force Against Children
A youth stated he participated in protests in Sanandaj on November 17 and that within the early afternoon, on the entrance of Mulavi township, uniformed Revolutionary Guard officers armed with Kalashnikovs fired into the air because the protesters approached. When the group threw rocks from a distance of round 50 meters, the officers fired and continued because the protesters ran away, wounding three males and a boy whose look prompt he was roughly 14 or 15, the youth stated. The boy “fell proper subsequent to me. He had been shot on the left facet of his chest, under his coronary heart, and heavy blood gushed out and flowed on the asphalt.” A gaggle of protesters tried to hold him away however had been reduce off by safety officers on bikes, the youth stated:
The boy noticed them, and advised us, ‘They will arrest you due to me. If I’m going to die, let me die. If they’re going to arrest me, allow them to arrest me.’ The boy thanked us and advised us to go. When we left, we noticed the motorbikes had been on his heels.
The use of assault weapons in opposition to protesters operating away after throwing rocks from a distance is illegal use of deadly pressure. Human Rights Watch has documented quite a few incidents of safety forces unlawfully firing shotguns, assault rifles, and handguns in opposition to protesters throughout Iran for the reason that starting of widespread protests on September 16. Another resident of Sanandaj witnessed two incidents of safety forces severely beating kids of their custody.
Security forces fatally shot Omid Sarani, 13, in Zahedan, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, on September 30, an knowledgeable supply stated. Omid’s physique was discovered on Karegar sq. subsequent to the physique of a 20-year-old man from the identical neighborhood, the place safety forces had shot at protesters. The metropolis that day “was like a warfare zone, there was capturing, helicopters,” the supply stated. Omid was “shot within the coronary heart,” and the person was shot within the head, the supply stated. Amnesty International beforehand confirmed these killings.
Children Injured and Denied Medical Care
In a number of reported circumstances, Iranian safety forces injured and detained kids with out giving them entry to medical care. In a video uploaded to social media, a boy in a hospital mattress recognized as Ilya Rezaei, 14, from Mahalat in Markazi Province, says that Revolutionary Guard forces shot him on November 20 whereas he was returning residence from his work in a bicycle manufacturing facility, then pushed him right into a car and drove him to a Revolutionary Guard facility, torturing him with an electroshock weapon, with out offering medical remedy. An X-ray reportedly exhibits birdshot in Ilya’s chest.
Amir Hossein Rahimi, 15, was shot throughout protests close to Karaj and detained in Kechoui Prison correctional middle for 2 months with out medical take care of birdshot in his head, neck, chest, and abdomen, his mom advised a journalist. His household reportedly couldn’t afford his 500 million tomans (nearly US$119,000) bail. He faces trial earlier than the Karaj Revolutionary Court for throwing a Molotov cocktail.
Children Denied Education
Iran’s supreme chief, Ali Khamenei, has pardoned about 300 highschool college students detained throughout the nation, who had been launched, however many have been denied re-enrollment at school, apparently underneath stress from the Revolutionary Guard, stated Hossein Raeisi, an Iranian regulation professional who’s following 9 such circumstances: “For these kids, it means the top of their education, even when not formally, and the top of their future.”
On October 23, Education Minister Yousef Nouri stated scholar protesters had been being taken to psychiatric facilities for “reform and retraining,” underneath the supervision of a cleric and a psychologist. School officers have additionally reportedly assaulted kids who participated in protests.
Children Assaulted, Arrested at Schools
Fateme Fanaeian, an Iranian journalist, described three circumstances through which college principals referred to as police in response to schoolgirls’ protests. In October, after a 16-year-old sang a protest music along with her classmates at a college in Rasht, the police detained three women for 15 days and threatened them with rape and dying.
Plainclothes officers arrested a 17-year-old lady on the door of her college in Tehran after the schoolchildren had “kicked out a mullah” who had come to talk, Fanaeian stated. The principal closed the college doorways to forestall the kids from leaving and referred to as the police, who beat dozens of ladies with batons, and dragged one lady on the bottom, and detained a dozen kids in a single day.
In Bandar Abbas, a schoolgirl from Afghanistan filmed the Shariati High School principal threatening college students, and the video was broadly seen on social networks, inflicting dad and mom to take their kids out of the college. The lady was arrested.