Regime officials claimed hacked CCTV footage from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison was fake and taken from archives. Last week, a group of Iranian hackers known as Edalat-e Ali, or “Ali’s Justice” published leaked footage showing degrading treatment of prisoners, beatings, sexual harassment, and deliberate neglect and ill-treatment of those in need of medical care.
Mohammad Mosadeq, the First Deputy of Iran’s Judiciary said yesterday that most of the footage was “made up and has nothing to do with prison.” He said the footage was collected from other places and are not related to the judiciary.
When asked about leaked Evin Prison security camera footage by a hacker group that showed prison abuse, the regime's First Deputy of the Judiciary says "the issue is still not very clear. I think we will give more info about it by tomorrow". https://t.co/IBbAnZmAFQ pic.twitter.com/JeU53xNVMU
— Iran News Wire (@IranNW) August 24, 2021
According to state-run media, the Head of Iran’s Article 90 Commission, a Judiciary sector in Parliament, said the footage was taken from archives. Hassan Shojaei said the footage belongs to the years 2016 to 2020 and these cases were hidden from authorities. He added that “violations” will be dealt with.
Hassan Norouzi, the Deputy Chairman of Iran’s Legal and Judicial Commission in parliament also said yesterday that the footage was “made by Zionists.” Norouzi added that the purpose of the footage was to deviate people’s minds from the US’s failure in Afghanistan.
Norouzi also said according to the Constitution, torture is banned in Iran.
“According to my careful research, we do not have torture in this sense at all,” the official said.
This is while Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, said in 2004 that “finger amputation sentences are among our biggest pride”. Torture has been carried out systematically during the 42 years of the Islamic Republic of Iran. One example is the flogging sentence, used for over 100 offenses in Iran, which has been institutionalized by the regime in its Islamic Penal Code.
Amnesty International said in a report that the leaked video clips are just the tip of the iceberg and reaffirm concerns around chronic overcrowding and solitary confinement in cruel and inhumane prison conditions.
“Away from public view, Iranian security officials routinely subject men, women, and children behind bars to torture or other ill-treatment, particularly when undergoing interrogations in detention centres run by the ministry of intelligence, the Revolutionary Guards, and the investigation unit of Iran’s police (Agahi),” Amnesty wrote.
Iran’s Prisons
With a capacity detaining 15,000 people, Tehran’s Evin Prison has built a reputation for Iran’s rampant political repression.
Standing at the foot of the Alborz Mountains in northwestern Tehran, Evin Prison has held hundreds of peaceful activists, journalists, intellectuals, and human rights lawyers throughout its history. Inmates are held in overcrowded cells in unsanitary and poorly ventilated conditions, leading to critical health problems. Prisoners, especially political dissidents are tortured into forced confessions.
In May, jailed protester Hossein Hashemi wrote of the horrible conditions of political prisoners in the Greater Tehran Prison (also known as Fashafuyeh).
The young political prisoner said crystal meth, opium, and other drugs could easily be found in the political prisoner’s section in the Greater Tehran Prison. Hashemi said prisoners were forced to pay for their water, which they used for drinking, bathing, and brushing their teeth. He was charged with “publishing lies” because of his open letter about the dire conditions in the prison. The young political prisoner must present himself to court in seven days.
Source » irannewswire