Iranian regime accused of using torture, murder and rape to suppress opposition

Tehran, Sep. 18 (ANI): The father of an Iranian student, who died in jail after being arrested for protesting against President Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, has claimed that his son was beaten, got his bones broken and toenails pulled out while in prison.

Amir Javadifar, 24, was so badly beaten that he had to treated in hospital before being taken to the notorious Evin prison, Times Online reports.

Later, his father was called to collect his dead body. And, they ordered his family to say that he had died of a pre-existing condition.

"My son was not involved in politics. He loved his motherland - that's all. I alone mourn him," the report quoted his father, as saying.

According to reports prepared by the country's opposition, Javadifar was just one among scores of alleged cases of murder, torture and rape. And, security forces have engaged in systematic killing and torture to try to break the opposition, the report adds.

"The use of rape and torture was similar across prisons in Tehran and the provinces. It is difficult not to conclude that the highest authorities planned and ordered these actions. Local authorities would not dare take such actions without word from above," the report quoted one investigator referring to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as saying.

The documents suggest that at least 200 demonstrators were killed in Tehran, with 56 others still unaccounted for, and that 173 were killed in other cities.

According to the report, the documents also suggest that a chain of unofficial, makeshift prisons has been set up across Iran where rape and torture are common practice.

In Tehran alone, 37 young men and women claim to have been raped by their jailers. Doctors' reports say that two males, aged 17 and 22, died as a result of severe internal bleeding after being raped, the report adds.

Female rape victims were mostly held for days, the report claims, adding that some victims had said that their jailers claimed to have "religious sanction" to violate them as they were "morally dirty". (ANI)