By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Detained Iranian filmmaker and journalist Mohammad Nourizad has published an account of the torture which he claims that he and other detainees have be subjected to as political prisoners.  Nourizad said in a statement that was posted on several Iranian reformist websites, that he was cursed and severely beaten by intelligence officers, whose behavior he called “barbaric.”

Nourizad was arrested in 2009 after publishing several open letters on his blog which were deemed disrespectful to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials.  He was sentenced to three years in prison and fifty lashes on unclear charges, but was released from prison on June 24, 2010. He was subsequently returned to prison on August 18, 2010 after publishing another public letter addressed to Khamenei on his blog.

Nourizad’s account stated that other political prisoners, including Mostafa Tajzade, Abdullah Momeni, Hamza Karimi, and Mohammad Reza Rajabi were also tortured while in detention. Momeni and Karimi have both previously written to Khamenei informing him of the torture and mental abuse that they, and other prisoners, were subject to in detention.

Both physical and mental torture are forbidden in the Iranian Constitution.

Karimi said, in a public statement:

“All those who have been affected by these matters in any way should know that the government’s principles do not lie in tolerance. We believe in making a stand against those opposing us within the framework of the law.”

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran executive director and spokesman, Hadi Ghaemi, told Radio Farda on November 10, 2010 that postpresidential election detainees are routinely tortured.  He said:

“The news of torture leaked during the initial period of the unrest when a huge number of people were arrested, and the Kehrizak detention center was the center of attention in this respect.”

Ghaemi hopes to prevent torture of detainees in Iran by publicizing it and drawing international attention to it.

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