Detained Reformists Reportedly Tortured to Induce Testimony About ‘Foreign Plot’

26 June 2009 :: J.E. Robertson

The Guardian newspaper is reporting that sources inside Iran say there appears to be an ongoing attempt by the government to use torture and street violence to induce detained reformists to give false confessions of conspiracy in a “foreign plot” to overthrow the regime. The aim appears to be to produce videotaped “confessions” that would be broadcast on state TV accusing opposition candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi of complicity in a foreign plot to take over the Iranian government.

According to the UK-based newspaper:

Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, all Mousavi supporters, are reported to have undergone “intensive interrogation” sessions in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since being arrested in a mass round-up of opposition figures following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

The three, who all served in the government of the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, are among several hundred activists, academics, journalists and students detained in a crackdown coinciding with the brutal suppression of street protesters who believe the election was stolen.

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There are reports that other prisoners heard screams of agony from two of the detained opposition figures, both former ministers in the government of reformist president Mohammad Khatami, while the third, Aminzadeh, was heard screaming “I will not give interviews”. Amnesty International broke the story and says the reports come from “very credible sources” inside Iran.

In 2007, this technique is believed to have been used to force three Iranian-American academics to confess on state TV that they had involvement with pro-democracy groups that were plotting the regime’s overthrow. Part of the hardline approach that feeds this brutality is the belief among leadership that any opposition activity related to winning power in the next election is somehow intertwined with foreign governments seeking a change of leadership in Iran.

Instead of defending the Iranian constitution or the virtues of Islam, authorities have used their power to prevent actions against the state to crush dissent and defend those in power or whose views are closer to those of the supreme leader. Throughout this crisis, opposition leaders and supporters have called on prominent figures to recognize that certain of the supreme leader’s actions effectively violate his constitutional obligation to “community” with the people of Iran, by choosing sides and making dissenters into enemies of his power-structure.

This week, state-run media broadcast “interviews” with individuals who are shown confessing to being “terrorists” for taking part in street demonstrations. The power-base that runs between Khamene’i and Ahmedinejad has made it clear their official line is now to accuse pro-democracy demonstrators of terrorism and violence against the public and the state and to accuse reformist politicians of treasonous activities, in order to justify a military crackdown.

According to the Guardian:

[Mostafa] Tajzadeh’s wife, Fakhrosadat Mohtashamipour, told the pro-reform website Emruz that she and a lawyer had been denied access to him since his arrest the day after the 12 June election. “Any quote or remarks made by these people in the current situation has no credibility. My husband’s only crime is his efforts to secure a high turnout,” she said.

Emerging evidence of deep division among even conservative politicians —nearly two-thirds of parliament ministers neglected to attend a victory celebration for Ahmedinejad— show there is disagreement over what the rule of law means for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Opposition leaders say the government has an obligation to reject the official vote-count on the basis of widespread fraud and make sure that every Iranian has a vote in choosing the next president, while the Khamene’i-Ahmedinejad camp is suggesting that abiding by the rule of law means agreeing with the official count.

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