Collective Sexual Assault of Seven Detained Teenagers During Protests in Zahedan Prison
Officials at Zahedan Central Prison, after torturing six Baloch detainees and one detainee from Mashhad, subjected them to collective sexual assault in a single cell.
The “Baloch Activists Campaign” reported on social media about the collective sexual assault of 7 detained youths in Zahedan Central Prison. The campaign stated that officers sexually assaulted the 7 young detainees using hoses.
On Sunday, the 7th of Esfand, during the Baloch people’s protests, 6 individuals from Baloch areas and 1 person from Mashhad were arrested and transferred to Zahedan Central Prison. Prison officials subjected them to severe physical and psychological torture in order to extract forced confessions. When torture failed to produce forced confessions, they resorted to sexual assault and torture, using hoses.
The identities of the Baloch individuals arrested and subjected to sexual assault have been identified as: “Benjamin Kohkan”, age 16; “Elias Kohkan”, age 19, and both are brothers; “Yaseen Kobdani”, age 17; “Mohammad Darvish Narooei”, age 19; “Ishaq Rigi”, age 21; and “Saeed Baranzahi”.
It should be noted that 16-year-old Benjamin Kohkan has attempted suicide twice following the sexual assault, though unsuccessfully. He and Yaseen Kobdani are currently being held in the “Children’s Reformation and Education Center” ward in Zahedan Central Prison.
Sexual assault of detainees during nationwide protests in Iran is not a new issue. Many girls and boys arrested during the revolutionary uprising in various cities were subjected to sexual assault by government officials to extract forced confessions, and many of them subsequently attempted suicide, some unsuccessfully.
The “Halosh” news agency in Sistan and Baluchestan also clearly exposed on the 20th of Bahman the sexual assault of detained Baloch women by IRGC intelligence officers in detention centers.
Detainees who have been held in prisons in various cities during the protests and subjected to sexual assault are in very poor and dire physical and psychological condition.
Baloch activists have also announced that government officials of the Islamic Republic use sexual assault against detainees of the protests as their last resort to stop the protests in this region. However, the people of Baluchestan will not stop their protests until they achieve victory.
Mawlavi Abdulhamid also addressed the institutions, stating: “We ask the institutions and free-minded figures to intervene to prevent this horrific crime and deviation.”
The crimes of the Islamic Republic regime continue to escalate every day. Crimes so extensive that there are no more words to recount them. Lies, plunder, adultery, repression, arrest, killing of children and youths, making people homeless, poisoning children and youths in schools, sexual assault against detainees and…. are among the greatest crimes of the Islamic Republic regime, which can only be called terrorism.
