- 15 February 2010
- 3 Comments
- Events in Iran, Human Rights in Iran, Iran Election 2009
Karroubi Son Brutalized After Feb. 11 Arrest (updated)
15 February 2010 Posted By Layla Armeen
Fatemeh Karroubi, the wife of Mehdi Karroubi who is one of Iran’s main opposition leaders, claims her youngest son was arrested, tortured and threatened with rape after the February 11 anti-government protests. In an open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran — Mrs. Karroubi discusses the current political turmoil in Iran and pleads for due process and restoration of the rule of law in the country.
After giving a brief history of her and her husband’s key involvement during the revolution, Mrs. Karroubi describes the events of the Feb. 11 and what led to her son’s brutal treatment by the Basij and the anti-riot police. She claims that her son, Ali Karroubi 37, was arrested with no legal basis then beaten and humiliated in a nearby mosque.
They took him to the Amiral Momenin Mosque and he was beaten along with other detainees. He was recognized when they were registering the detainees by name. Then, after ten minutes, after the agents got the order from higher officials, he was separated from the other detainees and beaten severely. They used the Mosque as a place of torturing the children of the people of the country. Along with physical torture, Ali was subjected to verbal assault against his parents and was under severe psychological torture. When Ali protested the insult against his parents, the physical and psychological tortures were increased.
Once Ali Karroubi was ordered to be released by the higher ups, she said, the agent in charge expressed his regrets that they could not keep him for another 24 hours, or else “he would have delivered his dead body.”
At the end of her letter, she appeals to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and asks for his direct intervention in stopping these appalling acts of injustice by the current elements in power. She despises the “lack of an independent judicial system” and demands the Supreme Leader to intervene before it is too late.
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update: Jaras reports that Tehran’s District Attorney, Jafar Dolat-Abadi is denying Karroubi’s arrest. “If he claims that he was arrested then he needs to show reason and provide proof to his place of detention.”
“Through systematic investigations within the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Ministry of Intelligence and the Police it appears that no individual with this name was ever arrested,” Dolat-Abadi continued.
No word yet on how a person can convince the District Attorney they were arrested…
3 Responses to “Karroubi Son Brutalized After Feb. 11 Arrest (updated)”
Well, if he was arrested by uniformed elements of the IRGC or IRIPF (NAJA), then he can provide detailed descriptions of their uniforms, rank insignia and possibly names embroidered on name tapes.
However, if the persons allegedly responsible were plainclothesmen, that is another matter.
In this protest street environment, it is extremely naive for persons not to expect the possibility of this kind of thing happening, or to not adequately prepare beforehand.
Obviously there are those that bitterly resent the Mousavis, for the father’s actions taken immediately after the election, such as his perceived premature accusation of fraud.
This type of brutality deserves the type of world condemnation that it has been receiving. I, for one, am happy to see the US starting to address these concerns, though I am unsatisfied with the extent of it.
The whole situation is a little strange. On the one hand, I wish that the US would place more emphasis on the shameful human rights violations of the Iranian government and less on the nuclear issue. On the other hand, I fully believe that if it was not for the nuclear issue, the US would have no reason to care.
I guess that’s where NIAC comes in– give the US politicians reason to care. In the end a free Iran is likely to be an ally to the US. This is in the best interest of Iran and the US. The current antagonism between the US and Iran is in the best interest of Israel and certain Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, those countries have historically had a great deal of influence in determining US foreign policy.
“… descriptions of their uniforms, rank insignia and possibly names embroidered on name tapes”.
This would be sufficient proof? Anyone who is desperately trying to not believe what is so obviously going on in Iran, could just as easily discount this information. Anyone can study what uniforms look like, and learn the rank insignias. People could even make up names, or better yet, find out the names of certain officials.
At the end of the day, what is going on Iran is clear to anyone who is not trying avoid accepting the truth. In fact, I would argue it has become impossible to not see that Iran’s government entities are intimately involved in violence against Iranian people that disagree with the government. Thus those that pretend not to see it, actually see it just as clearly as the rest of us. The fact that there are those that try desperately to convince others (or themselves) that black is white and white is black, is not surprising. It is common practice for dictators and their defenders.