Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced this Tuesday in a report that the security forces of the Iranian regime have tortured, killed, sexually abused children, who have also disappeared. In addition, the authorities of the Persian country arrested, interrogated and prosecuted hundreds of minors.
According to the human rights NGO, the families of the detained children were prohibited from choosing their preferred defense lawyers. They also point out that they were sentenced for charges that were not clarified, and that were tried outside the courts that have jurisdiction over juvenile cases.
The report also denounces other abuses, such as detaining children without notifying their families, who sometimes went weeks without news of their loved ones. In addition, the minors who were released were prohibited from returning to school and their families were cut off by the State in social benefits, forcing the children to have to go out to work.
“Iranian leaders have unleashed their brutal security forces to sexually assault and torture children, and they have not spared children from ludicrously unfair trials,” said Tara Sepehri Far, Iran researcher for HRW.
“For the past seven months, the authorities have not hesitated to extend the coercive power of the state to silence even children”, he added.
The report comes amid a deep social, economic and political crisis in the Persian country, and massive anti-regime protests sparked last year by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, who was arrested for contempt of the country’s strict dress code for women.
At least 582 people were executed by hanging in Iran in 2022, a 75% more than the 333 of 2021according to data published by human rights defense organizationswho denounced a “execution machine” for “sow terror.”
It is also the highest number of executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran since 2015, specifies the report, carried out by the group Iran human rights (IHR), headquartered in Norwayand United Against the Death Penalty (ECPM, for its acronym in French), based on Paris.
In its recent report, HRW investigated abuse against 11 children between September 2022 and February 2023 and documented new details about two previously reported cases.
The human rights organization called on the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Iran to investigate abuses and violations against children.
The report documents the actions of the regime forces against the children, whom they detained, blindfolded and tortured. A family reported that their relative, a 17-year-old boy, was beaten and raped by police officers. A high school student described the torture he received: they pushed him into a burning gas stove, set his clothes on fire, and beat and whipped him while in detention. Another minor had needles stuck under his fingernails during an interrogation. Another minor, who was electrocuted and sexually abused, tried twice to take his own life.
In addition, those who were tortured did not receive medical attention, such as the case of a 13-year-old boy whose ribs were broken during a beating. Many relatives were threatened so that they would not report the abuses.
In violation of its own laws, the Iranian regime appointed clerics from the revolutionary court who served as judges in cases against minors. Iranian law establishes that children can only be questioned by specialized prosecutors and that they must have the protection of juvenile courts. There are cases of children who were sentenced in the first instance to 25 years in prison. However, after the Supreme Court annulled the sentences, the minors were sentenced to between 3 and 10 years in prison.
They denounce that many minors were accused of unclear crimes such as “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth”which can be punished with the death penalty or amputation of the right hand and left foot.
“Children who have suffered horrific abuse during detention and trial are at risk of lasting harm,” said Bill Van Esveld, HRW’s deputy director for children’s rights.
“The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission must prioritize the investigation of these abuses and recommend a path towards accountability,” he added.
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Source-www.infobae.com