Another November Detainee Exposes Islamic Republic’s Actions; Torture, Forced Confessions, and Attempted Kidnapping in Turkey
One of the detainees from the November 2019 protests in Iran, now residing in Turkey, has revealed other dimensions of widespread human rights violations by the Islamic Republic regime.
Fatemeh Khoshrou, one of the detainees from the November 2019 protests, told the Persian Service of Voice of America that regime officials subjected her to exhausting physical and psychological torture after her arrest. According to Ms. Khoshrou, they ultimately released her on the condition that she return to Turkey, provide personal information to them, and bring a targeted individual to the Iran-Turkey border.
Ms. Khoshrou was recently sentenced to one year in prison in absentia by the First Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Khorramabad. Based on the verdict, a copy of which was provided to Voice of America by Ms. Khoshrou, Hassan Karampour, the judge of this branch, accused her of matters such as filming protest gatherings and sending them outside the country and participating in these gatherings.
Fatemeh Khoshrou stated that her trial was held in absentia on October 5, and she was given 20 days to appeal the issued sentence.
Arrest, Beatings, and Torture
Regarding the interrogations she underwent during her detention, Fatemeh Khoshrou told Voice of America that she was repeatedly beaten and subjected to physical and psychological torture. She said that security forces repeatedly forced her to say whatever they wanted in front of a camera and threatened that if she did not cooperate with the Islamic Republic, they would arrest her family.
Ms. Khoshrou said: “During interrogations, they forced me to say whatever they wanted in front of the camera. They applied so much pressure and inflicted such psychological and physical torture that I accepted everything they said.”
Ms. Khoshrou stated that in November 2019, when she had traveled to Iran to visit her family, she participated in protests held in Khorramabad. She said she was arrested with beatings by security forces and spent more than 60 days in detention facilities of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, Evin Prison, and Khorramabad Prison. Ms. Khoshrou said she was ultimately temporarily released from prison upon posting bail of 100 million tomans until the end of legal proceedings.
According to Ms. Khoshrou, after her arrest, security forces went to her father’s house and, while searching the residence, confiscated some of her identification documents, including her passport and Turkish residence card, for a period of time.
Pressure to Cooperate in Kidnapping Plot in Turkey
According to Ms. Khoshrou, interrogators asked her to help the Islamic Republic with kidnapping in Turkey in exchange for her release.
She told Voice of America that interrogators gave her personal information about an individual and said they would release her if she could “trap him for us.”
She added: “They threatened that if I did not bring the person they wanted to the Iran-Turkey border, they would arrest family members.”
Fatemeh Khoshrou stated that she ultimately retrieved her identification documents and left Iran on Saturday, August 23 of this year.
Pressure on detainees to cooperate with security agencies in trapping opponents outside the country is not unprecedented. Masih Alinejad, an independent journalist and host of Voice of America’s Tablet program, whose brother Alireza Alinejad was recently sentenced to 8 years in prison, said in an interview with Voice of America: “The IRGC had a plan with my sister’s family to lure me to Turkey under the pretext of visiting my mother and kidnap me there. My brother exposed their plan and publicly wrote to me on Instagram: don’t come to Turkey. Now they have sentenced my brother for exposing the IRGC conspiracy.”
Last November, people in various Iranian cities took to the streets to protest the sudden rise in gasoline prices. According to Reuters news agency, under orders from Khamenei, approximately 1,500 protesters were killed. The Iranian government did not punish the suppression forces and instead arrested and convicted protesters.
According to Voice of America, 36 citizens residing in Behbahan and among those arrested during the November 2019 protests were sentenced by Criminal Court 2 of Behbahan county to a total of 109 years in prison, 2,590 lashes, and over three million tomans in fines.
The United States says the Islamic Republic is spending its country’s wealth supporting terrorist groups and destabilizing the Middle East instead of serving the Iranian people. The United States has also repeatedly condemned institutionalized financial corruption and the plundering of Iran’s natural resources by regime affiliates, considering them among the main causes of Iran’s economic and financial problems.
Donald Trump, the U.S. President, has also repeatedly referred to the issue of Iranian protesters and America’s support for the Iranian people, saying that “protesters in Iran are seeking freedom and we fully support them.”
The U.S. State Department has also repeatedly condemned violent confrontations and widespread suppression of protesters and the repeated and continued violation of Iranian citizens’ rights by the regime ruling that country.
Source: Voice of America
