Iranian clergy urged to probe "torture" in Evin Prison

Evin Prison

A group of Iranian political prisoners called on Iranian Shiite leaders to investigate and condemn the “physical, sexual and psychological torture” the detainee have endured during their detention.

The letter, which was published in Jaras website, addresses prominent clerics, Ayatollahs Sanei, Bayat Zanjani, Dastgheib, Sobhani, Mousavi Ardebili, Makarem Shirazi, Safi Golpayegani and Shabiri Zanjani to inform them that “almost all the prisoners in section 350 of Evin Prison have repeatedly heard the fact from their interrogators, Ministry of Intelligence staff and the Revolutionary Guards that the judiciary is by no means independent.”

The prisoners state that they have experienced that reality of these claims when many received the very sentences they were told they would get during the interrogations, even before they were issued by court.

The letter accuses interrogators of pressuring prisoners through threats aimed at their private and personal lives.

“On one occasion”, the letter states; “within 20 days the interrogator contacted the wife of the accused six times asking her to pursue a divorce and to contact him regularly about the progress of his husband’s case.”

The report maintains that the in some occasions, they have shown private pictures to the accused and accused them of immoral acts, in order to coerce them into confession.

The letter maintains that in section 350 of Evin Prison, interrogators have forced prisoners to strip and threatened to sexually abuse them with batons.

The letter goes on to say that some prisoners were forced to sign a prepared confession and in case of refusal they were “repeatedly tortured with batons and electric shockers.”

They contend that at least five people have been taken into a torture chamber with various torture instruments in order to be interrogated.

The prisoners urge the senior clerics to “investigate” these claims in order to establish their veracity and be informed of the “dominance of injustice in prisons and detention centres.”