Iran tortures children to extract confessions – rights group says
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Iranian authorities have used torture methods including sexual violence against children in custody to punish and humiliate them and to extract forced “confessions”, Amnesty International said in a new report on Thursday.
“Iran’s intelligence and security forces have been committing horrific acts of torture, including beatings, flogging, electric shocks, rape and other sexual violence against child protesters as young as 12 to quell their involvement in nationwide protests,” Amnesty, a non-government organization focuses on human rights, added.
“The torture methods that the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij, the Public Security Police, and other security and intelligence forces used against boys and girls in custody to punish and humiliate them and to extract forced ‘confessions’,” the organization’s report exposed.
Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said Iran’s “violence against children exposes deliberate strategy to crush the vibrant spirit of the country’s youth and stop them from demanding freedom and human rights.”
Amnesty has documented the cases of seven children in detail, obtaining testimonies from the victims and their families, as well as further testimonies on the widespread commission of torture against scores of children from 19 eyewitnesses, including two lawyers and 17 adult detainees who were held alongside children.
“The Iranian authorities have admitted that the total number of people detained in connection with the protests has exceeded 22.000,” the group said, adding, “Amnesty estimates that thousands of children could have been among those swept up in the wave of arrests.”
The report also noted to the fact that “state agents used rape and other sexual violence, including electric shocks to genitals, touching genitals, and rape threats as a weapon against child detainees to break their spirits, humiliate and punish them, and/or extract ‘confessions’.”
“Other torture methods recounted include floggings, administering electric shocks using stun guns, the forced administration of unidentified pills, and holding children’s heads underwater,” the report added.
Amnesty assured, “The authorities must immediately release all children detained solely for peacefully protesting.”
Since September 2022, Iran has been witnessed a nationwide protests following the arrest, and then killing, of the 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini by the Iranian Morality Police for “wearing inappropriate clothing.”