US State Department's annual assessment of ongoing human rights violations in Iran
In its annual report on the state of human rights in the world, the US State Department accused Iran of numerous human rights violations, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government and its agents, enforced disappearances, torture, political detentions, and acts of political reprisals against individuals in other countries, such as murder and kidnapping.
In this regard, the US State Department cited, among other things, the words of Javed Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, who said that almost all executions in Iran constitute arbitrary deprivation of life and that the Islamic Republic uses the death penalty as a political tool.
The ministry further points to reports of politically motivated kidnappings that the Iranian government has been accused of, saying that plainclothes officers arrest lawyers, journalists, and civil society activists without prior warning, and that government officials refuse to confirm the arrests or provide information about them.
Torture and cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees is another issue that Washington has accused Iran of, and in its report, it points to cases of physical and mental torture of political opponents in various Iranian prisons. These tortures and cruel treatment include threats of execution or rape, forced vaginal or anal examinations, sleep deprivation, denial of medical care, and electric shocks.
Hours before the release of this report, Amnesty International had also published the results of its investigation into the treatment of prisoners by Islamic Republic officials, which described how they contributed to or were the main cause of the deaths of approximately 100 prisoners by preventing or delaying the emergency transfer of prisoners to hospitals.
The US State Department report goes on to refer to the widespread arrests of political opponents, dissidents, and religious minorities in Iran solely because of their beliefs, and states that the Iranian government tries and imprisons political opponents on vague charges such as "counter-revolutionary actions," "corrupting the earth," "collaborating with global arrogance," and "fighting against God."
The US State Department has also accused the Islamic Republic of retaliating against its political opponents abroad, citing cases such as kidnapping or attempted kidnapping.
Ruhollah Zam was among the political dissidents who were taken from Paris to Iraq by Iranian security forces, where he was held and transferred to Iran, and eventually executed. Habib Asyoud and Jamshid Sharmehed are two other activists who were kidnapped and transferred to Iran in similar ways. The report also mentions the attempted kidnapping of Masih Alinejad, a political activist based in the United States.
Part of the US State Department report addresses Iran's role in regional conflicts and accuses the Revolutionary Guard and the Iranian government of supporting militant groups and terrorist organizations in Iraq and Yemen.
The report says that the Iranian government supports terrorist organizations such as Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, which has been involved in extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations in that country. The Islamic Republic has also helped prolong the war in Yemen by spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and the weapons it has provided to the Houthi rebels have been used to attack civilians and civilian infrastructure in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Source: Radio Farda
