Beating and Unlawful Detention of Waste Collector Citizen by Municipality Contractor Employee

This citizen explained what happened: I was living in a provincial town. After the coronavirus outbreak, my financial situation became very difficult and I couldn’t provide for myself and my family’s expenses. I decided to come to Tehran and collect waste. I had been working in Tehran for several days when one day, while I was inside a garbage bin collecting plastic bags and cardboard, a sturdy man approached me and said I was under arrest. He claimed to be a municipality official and said he had the duty to arrest waste collectors because garbage collection was banned due to the coronavirus outbreak.

He continued: I didn’t believe him and asked him to show me the court order, but he didn’t show me any order and then beat me severely and forcibly put me in his car and took me away.

The complainant man further stated: I was held at the detention facility for several hours and they asked me to promise not to collect waste again, then they released me, but they didn’t show me any court order there either. Because they had beaten me severely, I was forced to go to the hospital and was hospitalized for several days. Now I have both a complaint and a compensation claim regarding kidnapping.

After filing a case, the male employee was summoned to the prosecutor’s office. He claimed that his company told him to collect waste collectors, but he could not provide any order in this regard. Following the defendant’s claim, an inquiry was made from the municipality and it was determined that no such order or instruction had been issued to companies contracted with the municipality.

Accordingly, the case was sent to the criminal court of Tehran province with the issuance of an indictment for review.

The defendant went to trial. He said: I do not accept the charge because I thought such an order really existed.

The defendant added: The company manager told us that an order had been received from the municipality to deal with waste collectors. I didn’t know that no such order existed. On the day of the incident, while on patrol, I saw a man who had put his head into garbage and was collecting waste. To protect himself, I told him not to do this and that waste collection was banned by a municipality order. I didn’t have an order, but we were told that such an order existed. I apologize for not paying enough attention and not asking my manager for the order, but I took such action according to the company’s instructions and my intention was not kidnapping. I didn’t take him somewhere scary, I took him to the company and then we released him.

After the defendant’s and his defense attorney’s statements, the judicial panel went into deliberation to make a decision.