Letter to Rafsanjani on Abuse of Detainees (9 August 2009)

The Karroubi Letter to Rafsanjani on Abuse of Detainees

The honorable Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani,

The respected Head of the Expediency Council,

The disturbing events that occurred after the presidential election have been discussed in detail by different groups, media and individuals including yourself.

Some have been illegally and inappropriately arrested. Others have been subject to beatings. Some have been injured and murdered. People’s residences as well as dormitories have been raided and turned into a bloodbath. Even women have been subject to savage and horrendous abuses on the street. These events should be investigated. But certain other horrific acts have been committed that if not for accounts from different sources in recent days, you or I would have had a hard time believing them.

Severe and brutal beatings have been reported such that after 40 days the victims are still not in stable condition.

Detainees have been subject to humiliating badmouthing and cursing. This also occurred for people who attended your Friday prayer. This sort of behavior is not acceptable in our religious and Islamic culture, as all parties and groups have stressed. This shows that people who have been hired to commit these acts have are not familiar with the most basic principle of our religion. There have been rumors related to this but I will not discuss them now.

As you are aware, I wrote a letter to the head of the Judiciary regarding these issues. I also mentioned these points to the Intelligence Minister who was recently dismissed. But I have heard something else that even still, thinking of it makes me shiver. I have not been able to sleep the last two days since I heard this. I went to bed at 2 but without exaggeration I did not fall asleep, until I got up at 4, read from the Koran and took a shower so that water might calm me down a little. I even did the morning prayers but still was not able to sleep.

People who have told me about this, have all held important official positions in the system. They are well known and some of them have been soldiers in the holy war [eight year Iran-Iraq war]. These people have told me that, something horrific has happened in the prisons. If only one case is true, it is a catastrophe for the Islamic Republic of Iran which has turned the bright, shining history of Shia clerics into an atrocious, shameful fate and has outdone many dictatorial regimes, including that of the tyrannical Shah.

I don’t think that the prisoners from leftist factions to militant groups who lived in the Shah’s prisons side by side each other for 15 long years before the revolution, have seen or heard something similar.

I am writing these concerns for you, and insist that you take action regarding this matter and discuss it with Ayatollah Khamenei as you see fit. So that it is investigated thoroughly and if it is false, which I hope it is, the results are announced. Because right now, in society, this issue is being widely discussed by people who were arrested and by different media and websites. It is unclear what future generations will think of these events when they continuously become exaggerated. They will hold the Islamic Republic and clerical ranks also responsible. And if these events have occurred, the perpetuators, in any position or rank should be arrested and tried. This is necessary to keep opportunists from taking advantage of these rumors and this situation. It is also crucial that the committee consist of high ranking officials so that they will have the courage of expressing the truth, because I have heard that people have been threatened not to reveal any information about these events or they will be killed.

Mr. Hashemi, this is what I have been informed about:

Some of the detainees have reported that certain individuals have so severely raped some of the girls in custody that the attacks have caused excruciating damage and injury to their reproductive organs. At the same time, they report that others have raped the young boys so violently that upon their release, they have had to endure great physical and mental pain and have been lying in a corner of their homes since.

Considering the importance of this matter, it is expected that this case will be investigated by a neutral, transparent body appointed by the head of the Expediency Council [Rafsanjani]. So that this will remain a lesson for future generations, and will not serve as an opportunity for hooligans to humiliate the revolution, the Imam and the ruling system and to tarnish the thousand year contribution of the clerics. As a last point I note that two copies of this letter have been printed. One has been signed and sealed and sent to you and the other is with me.