Community Weblog of Persian Students in the UK

« Previous entry  •  Home  •  Next entry »

“Imprisoned Bloggers were tortured” says ex-VP

I decided to translate Abtahi's latest blog entry (alternative link) from Persian into English because I believe it is one of the most important actions that he (as part of Khatami's government) has taken during the past 8 years. Abtahi, as the ex VP in Parliamental Affairs, and a member of the Constitutional Supervision Committee, has published some details of interrogation and torture that has happened in prisons, and I'm sure by doing so he is seeking public and international attention to this subject. It is very important to let the world, the media, and human rights organisations hear about it. FYI Abtahi is the only Iranian government official who blogs daily in his famous personal weblog Webneveshteha. (apologies for my poor command of English, this is going to be a quick translation).

----------------------------
Three-hour meeting of the constitutional supervision committee with the imprisoned bloggers

Following a call from the President, the constitutional supervision committee -- of which I'm a member -- invited a number of imprisoned bloggers for a meeting to investigate about the way they were treated in prison. Mr Hanif Mazruee, Ghoreishi, Ms Fereshte Ghaazi, Naderpoor and Ms Mahboobeh Mollagholi attended the meeting. They told very important points about the unjustifiable treatment they had received, including:

1- Physical torture, punches and kicks: "he banged my head to the bench that made my recently-operated nose bleed, and later I found out that they broke my nose"; "they punched us"; "we were alone in single cells for months"; and things of this kind...

2- The classical questions about sexual relationships [to create moral scandals]: "Write down the names of your boy/girl friends"; "tell us about your illegal [= out of marriage] sexual relationships"; "what kind of relationship have that girl/guy had with you?"; "how many times have you been raped, or have you raped?"; and worst of all, they gave the names of 6 reformist activist to one of the girls asking her to confess in writing that she had had illegal sexual relationship with them. And when the girl refused, they brought in a former prisoner (who had turned to their side under torture) who told the girl face to face that he had had sexual relationship with her!

3- The interrogations were managed by a formerly arrested blogger. A few other bloggers who had [given up and] repented before were under less pressure, and were in a way helping the interrogators who had lack of technical knowledge on the subject [of internet and blogs]. This proves that weak people cannot be trusted in politics. However, we understand the situation they're in and can't really blame them for what they've done.

4- Objection to the bloggers right to hire lawyers, ignoring their legal rights.

5- The interrogators lacked technical knowledge [on the subject].

6- The interrogators tried to force bloggers to confess in writing based on the templates given to them in prison, which were along the same line as the Spider's Web conspiracy article published in Kayhan newspaper. The bloggers were told that they would be freed once their confessions were printed in daily newspapers. Some of the bloggers had accepted the terms, but those whom we met today had not given up.

7- The bloggers were individually asked to write lies about the sexual and sometimes political corruptness of a number of different politicians. All of them were asked to write about Mostafa Tajzadeh and myself [Abtahi] amongst others.

And other points that are impossible to mention here.

After listening to them for 3 hours, depressed, anxious and tearful committee members made some decisions which will be announced shortly, although they are not sure if they will be able to implement those decisions. What you read were a few of the stories of those bloggers. Later I asked the chair of the meeting whether they want to stop this news from spreading. He said no, but he wondered how they could stand responsible before the God, the nation and history.
----------------------------

PS: I don't know the proper English name for the Constitutional Supervision Committee. I guess their full name is something like "The Committee in Charge of Follow-up and Supervision of Proper Implementation of the Constitution". Now despite this long name, Abtahi says they are not sure if they can implement their decisions, which shows how limited their abilities and domain of activity is in real world (or how weak the reformist camp has become). Maybe officials like Abtahi are trying to change this by seeking international attention.

UPDATE: Read more about the torturing of bloggers HERE.

PhotoBlog