Iran’s parliamentary speaker yesterday rejected as “baseless” an opposition leader’s accusation that some protesters had been raped in jails after their detention in unrest following the June election.
“Based on parliament’s investigations, detainees have not been raped or sexually abused in Iran’s Kahrizak and Evin prisons. Such claims are a lie,” state television quoted Ali Larijani as telling parliament.
Defeated moderate candidate Mehdi Karroubi said on Sunday some protesters, both men and women, had been raped in prison.
“A number of detainees have said that some female detainees have been raped savagely. Young boys held in detention have also been savagely raped,” Karroubi said in a letter dated July 29.
Larijani issued a stern warning directed at Karroubi over the rape claims.
“The contents of the letter were shocking and the letter was immediately published by foreign media. Considering the sensitivity of the issue, I asked a parliamentary fact finding panel to investigate,” Larijani said.
He also asked Karroubi to submit any evidence or testimony about the rapes for a “serious probe” into the claims.
“This is also a warning to politicians to take care and not to make any claims to the media before a proper investigation is done so that it is not exploited by foreigners,” he said.
Hardline newspaper Kayhan also lashed out at Karroubi, a reformist former parliament speaker who came a distant fourth in the June 12 election.
“The main aim of the letter is to denigrate Islam, the revolution and is mainly targetted at foreign circles and media,” managing director Hossein Shariatmadari wrote in an editorial.
Many of the post-election detainees were held in Kahrizak prison in south Tehran, built to house people breaching vice laws. At least three people died in custody there and widespread anger erupted as reports of abuse in jail spread.
Last month Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the closure of the “sub-standard” detention center at Kahrizak. Iranian authorities have acknowledged some protesters were tortured at Kahrizak and said its director had been jailed.
Karoubi said he had written 10 days earlier to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads a powerful arbitration body, asking for an inquiry, but had received no response.
A committee set up by Karoubi and another candidate, Mirhossein Mousavi, to pursue the issue submitted a list of 69 people killed in protests to parliament on Monday.
The list contradicted the official figure of 26 deaths.
The opposition says the poll was rigged, defying Khamenei who endorsed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s e-election.
About 4,000 opposition supporters, including reformists and journalists, were also arrested over the unrest that swept Iran, officials said.
Most have been released, but around 200 remain behind bars.
At least 110 have also been put on trial, including a French woman lecturer and local staff with the British and French embassies, triggering outrage in the West.
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
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