IRGC steps up arrests, opposition demand international investigation into prison violations

Ali Ragab

A report by the Iranian opposition abroad has revealed an escalation in the detention and torture of Iranian youth by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s regime, and they called for an international investigation into cases of detention and torture in Iranian prisons.

The secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the intelligence service of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) recently began a campaign of arrests that affected large numbers of opposition youth, especially the families and supporters of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), as the regime fears an outbreak of popular uprisings.

The report indicated that arrests are taking place in Tehran, Mashhad, Nishapur, Kermanshah, Sabzevar, Arak, Kashan, Mahshahr, Bushehr, Amol, Ahvaz, Andimeshk, Rasht, Behbahan, Isfahan, Karkan, Karaj, Tabriz and Shiraz, in parallel with the launch of a campaign by the mullahs’ intelligence and supporters abroad against the Iranian resistance.

According to the report, the IRGC, Ministry of Intelligence, and security personnel in civilian clothes stormed the homes and workplaces of Iranian citizens, beating and arresting them. The regime’s forces also confiscated the victims’ phones, computers, valuables and various personal belongings.

Khamenei’s thugs carried out hours of torture, psychological and physical pressure, interrogation, and fabricating scenes of execution with the aim of destroying prisoners’ morale, as well as forcing them to participate in plays and TV shows.

The report added that the investigators deliberately insulted detainees, especially young women and girls, using the most severe forms of torture.

According to those who survived the arrests, the regime’s focus was on obtaining information about the PMOI and strongholds for uprisings, uncovering relationships between the detainees and the organization, and searching for reasons that young people are attracted to the Iranian resistance.

“In Mashhad, the investigators created a scene of the execution of a group of 10 young detainees by accusing them of being linked to the PMOI in order to extract confessions from them,” the report added.

In Tehran, torturers harassed and abused young women and girls with the worst forms of psychological torture, although witnesses reported remarkable resistance from the detainees.

The report also indicated that the mullahs’ intelligence services made phone calls and sent threatening messages to create an atmosphere of terror in an attempt to prevent young people from communicating with and advocating for the PMOI.

PMOI leader Maryam Rajavi renewed her call to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, and international human rights organizations to send international missions to visit Iran’s prisons and meet political prisoners and those detained in the recent period, especially women.