Over 100 Teenagers Arrested During November Protests Transferred to Juvenile Detention Centers
116 detainees from recent popular protests in Iran have been transferred to juvenile detention centers, which are designated for offenders under 18 years of age.
The Center for Defenders of Human Rights in Iran published this news on Wednesday, December 25, citing an active Telegram channel involved in Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps propaganda on social media.
The Center for Defenders of Human Rights in Iran further stated that with the release of this news, concerns about the detention conditions of arrested children have increased, and educational experts and human rights activists say that detaining this group alongside convicted prisoners will have many severe consequences.
This human rights organization, in this report, referring to Nikta Esfahani, one of the victims of the November protests who has become a symbol of children under 18 killed by security forces, states that previously various human rights sources in their statistics reported that at least 20 children between 14 and 18 years old who lost their lives in recent protests.
Reuters news agency in its latest report stated the death toll in Iran’s protests at 1,500 people and wrote, citing three sources close to the leader of the Islamic Republic, that Khamenei had ordered government and security officials to do “whatever is necessary” to stop the protests.
Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran at the State Department, in his first reaction to Reuters’ investigative report, said that the international community should punish those responsible for this massacre and isolate the regime.
The US Secretary of State on December 19 also addressed extensive violations of human rights in Iran regarding the human rights situation in the country.
Mike Pompeo, referring to one of the protest casualties named Pouya Bakhtiari, said that he, along with his mother, went to the demonstrations seeking a better life, but was killed by security forces. However, his dreams, including freedom for the Iranian people, remain alive.
President Donald Trump also on Tuesday, December 3, reacted again to the Iranian government’s treatment of protesters and said on the sidelines of the NATO summit: “It is very unfortunate that protesters in Iran have been killed simply for protesting.”
The US President on the sidelines of this summit repeatedly referred to the subject of Iranian protesters and America’s support for the Iranian people and said: “Protesters in Iran are seeking freedom and we fully support them.”
Source: Voice of America
