The story of a convicted criminal raping teenage boys in Shushtar

A journalist has reported on the rape of teenage boys by a convicted felon in the city of Shushtar, located in Khuzestan Province.

Masih Alinejad, a journalist and host of the Voice of America Tablet program, has announced that he has received videos of an individual raping 12- and 13-year-old boys, which are "very horrifying."

He wrote on his Telegram channel: "Ahmad Tantan," a criminal and a notorious gangster from "Shushtar," who had been imprisoned many times before, was last released through one of his relatives. The person who released this notorious gangster is from an influential family in Shushtar.

According to reports received by this journalist, after his release, the criminal, along with two of his friends, raped 12 and 13-year-old boys and filmed the victims being raped.

It is said that the perpetrator had threatened the victims with these films, saying that if they informed the families about the matter, he would publish the films.

Masih Alinejad has stated that four teenage boys were raped in the films he has obtained, but it is believed that the number of victims is more than four.

It has also been reported that these films have reached some of the victims' families, but in addition to the rapist, they have also been threatened by the police, saying that they have no right to report this to the media, otherwise they will face legal action.

The victims are said to be from impoverished families and do not have access to lawyers. They are concerned that filing a complaint will cause the perpetrator to take revenge on the children and their families once they are released.

It seems that the family of this rapist is trying to close the case with medical documents and certificates of mental disorders.

Shahin Samadpour, a documentary filmmaker and social reporter in Iran, also confirmed the news and announced on his Instagram page that the rapist had been arrested. Other reports also indicate that the perpetrator was arrested last week.

But the release of this news brought many reactions on Twitter. Many users, using the hashtag "rape of children in Shushtar," compared the incident to the sexual harassment case of Saeed Tusi, a Quran reciter close to the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader.

The Islamic Republic does not have a good record in handling cases of sexual assault against children, including the sexual abuse case of Mohammad Gandomnejad Toosi, known as Saeed Toosi, a Quran reciter close to the Supreme Leader's household, who was accused of sexually abusing some teenage reciters after a few years following a complaint from their parents.

Although after two years of investigation, Toosi's case became serious in 2015 due to the families' follow-up and the judge sentenced the reciter to 4 years in prison, the Islamic Republic's judiciary ultimately acquitted Saeed Toosi in January 2017.

In June, the vice-chancellor of a high school in Tehran was accused of widespread sexual harassment of students. This time, the Supreme Leader of Iran issued a decree ordering the head of the judiciary to implement divine punishments for the defendants in the case as soon as possible after the trial.

Ayatollah Khamenei's reaction came at a time when in recent years, allegations surrounding one of his close associates not only failed to meet a similar order, but senior members of the Supreme Leader's household had used their authority to halt the investigation of Saeed Tusi's plaintiffs' case.

Source: Voice of America