Amnesty International says detained children in Iran are being tortured



CNN

Iranian authorities used torture methods including sexual abuse of child prisoners as part of the suppression recent protestsAccording to human rights group Amnesty International.

“Iran’s intelligence and security forces are perpetrating horrific acts of torture, including beatings, whippings, electric shocks, rape and other types of sexual abuse against protesting children as young as 12, to stifle their participation in nationwide protests,” Amnesty International said on Thursday.

The group’s report exposed the “torture methods used by the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij paramilitaries, the Public Security Police, and other security and intelligence forces on boys and girls in custody to punish and humiliate them and to extract ‘confessions’ under duress.” “. ”

Diana Eltahavi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that “Iran’s violence against children exposes a deliberate strategy to stifle the vibrant spirit of the country’s youth and prevent them from demanding freedom and human rights.”

Amnesty “obtained testimonies from the victims and their families, as well as additional testimonies about the widespread use of torture against dozens of children from 19 eyewitnesses, including two lawyers and 17 adult detainees who were being held with the children,” the rights group said.

The protests were first sparked by the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini, who died on September 16, 2022 after being detained by the country’s vice police.

According to Amnesty International, Iran admitted to detaining more than 22,000 people during the protests, but did not specify how many of them were children. The group estimates that thousands of children may be among the detainees.

Amnesty also stated that “State agents used rape and other forms of sexual violence, including electric shocks to the genitals, touching the genitals and threats of rape, as weapons against detained children to break their spirits, humiliate and punish them and/ or achieve “confessions”. ”

“Other methods of torture described include flogging, electroshock using stun guns, forcible injection of unknown pills, and holding children’s heads under water,” Amnesty said in a report.

Amnesty International called on Iran to release all children detained for peaceful protests and called on other countries to “exercise universal jurisdiction over Iranian officials, including those in command or supreme responsibility, who are reasonably suspected of being criminally responsible for crimes under international law, including torture of children. protesters.”

CNN has reached out to the Iranian government for comment but has yet to receive a response, and the government has yet to comment publicly on the report.

In February, CNN reported on the existence of an extensive network of illegal underground prisons or black sites in Iran.

The methods of repression and torture employed by this shadow network appear to be even more horrific than the usual mistreatment of arrested protesters in lawful places of detention.

CNN reached out to the Iranian government for comment on allegations of torture and ill-treatment at these unofficial locations, but received no response.