Detained Iran protesters raped, sexually assaulted: Amnesty

Detained Iran protesters raped, sexually assaulted: Amnesty
This grab taken from a UGC video made available on the ESN platform on October 19, 2022 shows people reacting as they gather at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran to welcome Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian climber who caused a sensation by competing at an event abroad without a hijab. (AFP/File)
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Updated 06 December 2023
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Detained Iran protesters raped, sexually assaulted: Amnesty

Detained Iran protesters raped, sexually assaulted: Amnesty

PARIS: Members of the Iranian security forces raped and used other forms of sexual violence against women and men detained in the crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted from September 2022, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
Amnesty said in a report it had documented 45 such cases of rape, gang rape or sexual violence against protesters. With cases in more than half of Iran’s provinces, it expressed fear these documented violations appeared part of a “wider pattern.”
“Our research exposes how intelligence and security agents in Iran used rape and other sexual violence to torture, punish and inflict lasting physical and psychological damage on protesters, including children as young as 12,” Amnesty’s secretary general Agnes Callamard said.
The London-based organization said it had shared its findings with the Iranian authorities on November 24 “but has thus far received no response.”
The protests began in Iran in September 2022 after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22. Her family says she was killed by a blow to the head but this has always been disputed by the Iranian authorities.
After rattling Iran’s clerical leadership, the movement lost momentum by the end of that year in the face of a fierce crackdown that left hundreds dead, according to rights activists, and thousands arrested, according to the United Nations.
Amnesty said 16 of the 45 cases documented in the report were of rape, including six women, seven men, a 14-year-old girl, and two boys aged 16 and 17.
Six of them — four women and two men — were gang raped by up to 10 male agents, it said.
It said the sexual assaults were carried out by members of the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij force, agents of the intelligence ministry, as well as police officers.
The rapes on women and men were carried out with “wooden and metal batons, glass bottles, hosepipes, and/or agents’ sexual organs and fingers,” it said.
As well as the 16 rape victims, Amnesty said it documented the cases of 29 victims of other forms of sexual violence such as the beating of breasts and genitals, enforced nudity, and inserting needles or applying ice to men’s testicles.
It said it collected the testimony through interviews with the victims and other witnesses, conducted remotely via secure communications platforms.
“The harrowing testimonies we collected point to a wider pattern in the use of sexual violence as a key weapon in the Iranian authorities’ armory of repression of the protests and suppression of dissent to cling to power at all costs,” said Callamard.
One woman, named only as Maryam, who was arrested and held for two months after removing her headscarf in a protest, told Amnesty she was raped by two agents during an interrogation.
“He (the interrogator) called two others to come in and told them ‘It’s time’. They started ripping my clothes. I was screaming and begging them to stop.
“They violently raped me in my vagina with their sexual organs and raped me anally with a drink bottle. Even animals don’t do these things,” she was quoted by the group as saying.
A man named as Farzad told Amnesty that plain clothes agents gang raped him and another male protester, Shahed, while they were inside a vehicle.
“They pulled down my trousers and raped me. I couldn’t scream out. I was really being ripped apart... I was throwing up a lot, and was bleeding from my rectum when I went to the toilet,” said Farzad who was released without charge a few days later.
Amnesty said most victims did not file complaints against the assault for fear of further consequences, and those who did tell prosecutors were ignored.
“With no prospects for justice domestically, the international community has a duty to stand with the survivors and pursue justice,” said Callamard.


War monitor says two dead in Israel strike on Syria-Lebanon border village

War monitor says two dead in Israel strike on Syria-Lebanon border village
Updated 4 sec ago
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War monitor says two dead in Israel strike on Syria-Lebanon border village

War monitor says two dead in Israel strike on Syria-Lebanon border village
  • War monitor says bombed area lies on a smuggling and transportation route between Lebanon and Syria
  • Attack comes less than a week after Israel’s military confirmed a similar strike on the nearby Jousieh crossing
DAMASCUS: A Syrian war monitor said Tuesday that two people were killed in an Israeli strike near Syria’s border with Lebanon, the second strike in less than a week near a key land crossing.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli warplanes “attacked vehicles near Al-Nazariya Village in Al-Qaseer countryside” along the border with Lebanon, adding that “two people inside the vehicles were killed.”
The NGO said the area lies on a smuggling and transportation route between Lebanon and Syria.
The attack comes less than a week after Israel’s military confirmed a similar strike on the nearby Jousieh crossing, claiming it was being used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.
Lebanese and United Nations officials warned that strike had jeopardized the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria.
Israel had previously struck the Masnaa crossing further south, leaving it unusable.
Israel has been at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon since late last month, in a bid to secure its northern border after nearly a year of cross-border fire from the Iran-backed armed group.
Nearly 500,000 people have fled to Syria since Israel launched an intense air campaign mainly on Hezbollah bastions in Lebanon in late September, Lebanese official figures show.

As Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon, fear rises in communities where the displaced took refuge

As Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon, fear rises in communities where the displaced took refuge
Updated 35 min 41 sec ago
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As Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon, fear rises in communities where the displaced took refuge

As Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon, fear rises in communities where the displaced took refuge

AITO: Dany Alwan stood shaking as rescue workers pulled remains from piles of rubble where his brother’s building once stood.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed the three-story residential building in the quiet Christian village of Aito a day before. His brother, Elie, had rented out its apartments to a friend who’d fled here with relatives from their hometown in southern Lebanon under Israeli bombardment.

Things were fine for a few weeks. But that day, minutes after visitors arrived and entered the building, it was struck. Almost two dozen people were killed, half of them women and children. Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah official, as it has insisted in other strikes with high civilian death tolls.

This strike - in northern Lebanon, deep in Christian heartland - was particularly unusual. Israel has concentrated its bombardment mostly in the country’s south and east and in Beirut’s southern suburbs -Shiite-majority areas where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence.

Strikes in the traditionally “safe” areas where many displaced families have fled are raising fears among local residents. Many feel they have to choose between helping compatriots and protecting themselves.

“We can’t welcome people anymore,” Alwan said as rescue teams combed through the rubble in Aito. “The situation is very critical in the village, and this is the first time something like this has happened to us.”

Aito is in the Zgharta province, which is split between Christian factions who are supporters and critics of Hezbollah.

Some Christian legislators critical of Hezbollah have warned of the security risks that could come with hosting displaced people, mostly from the Shia Muslim community. They worry that many may have familial and social ties to Hezbollah, which in addition to its armed wing has civilian services across southern and eastern Lebanon.

Some also worry that long-term displacement could create demographic changes and weaken the Christian share in Lebanon’s fragile sectarian power-sharing system. The tiny country has a troubled history of sectarian strife and violence, most notably in a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.

Lebanon for decades has struggled to navigate tensions and political gridlock within its sectarian power-sharing government system. Parliament is deeply divided among factions that back and oppose Hezbollah and has been without a president for almost two years.

When Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinian ally Hamas in the war-torn Gaza Strip, the move was met with mixed feelings. Critics say it was a miscalculation that has brought the widespread devastation of Gaza here.

After nearly a year of low-level fighting, the Israeli military escalated its attacks against Hezbollah a month ago, launching daily aerial bombardments and a ground invasion. Most of Lebanon’s estimated 1.2 million displaced people fled over the past month.

In late September, traffic jams stretching for miles clogged streets leading to Beirut as people left, some with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

For many, the violence has moved them to help their fellow residents, cutting across sectarian lines.

Michella Sfeir, who was safe in the north, said she wanted to take action after seeing a picture of a driver pouring water from his bottle into a nearby driver’s empty one.

“The first thing you can think of is: How can I help immediately?” she said.

She now helps prepare meals at a women’s art center that’s become a community kitchen and donation dropoff center for blankets, clothes, and supplies in Aqaibe, a seaside town just north of Beirut. Displaced women who found shelter in surrounding neighborhoods regularly visit, while some people involved in other initiatives help deliver the hot meals to shelters around dinnertime.

“We get lots of questions like, ‘When you go to give the help, is there a member of Hezbollah waiting for you at the door?’” Sfeir said, citing blowback in the community from people who perceive the displaced as Hezbollah members, supporters and relatives.

“Some people ... would ask us ‘Why are you helping them? They don’t deserve it; this is because of them.’”

Though northern coastal cities such as Byblos and Batroun with pristine beaches and ancient ruins have not felt the direct pain of the conflict, anxiety is rising in surrounding areas.

On one coastal road - the busy Jounieh highway - an Israeli drone struck a car earlier this month, killing a man and his wife.

Such rare but increasing Israeli strikes have rattled residents in the north. Many feel torn: Should they risk their security by hosting displaced people, or compromise their morals and turn them away?

Zeinab Rihan fled north with family and relatives from the southern Nabatiyeh province when they couldn’t bear the airstrikes approaching closer to their homes.

But, Rihan said, they found many landlords quoting outlandish rent figures in an apparent attempt to turn them away.

Some might have been acting out of personal prejudice, Rihan said, but it’s likely most were simply afraid.

“They were scared that they might rent their place to someone who turns out to be targeted,” Rihan said. “But this is our current reality, what can we do?”

A resident of one northern town near the coast said the local government didn’t want to welcome displaced people, but many residents pressured the municipality to change course.

He cited the town’s common sympathy and sense of duty to help others, despite the security risks. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of stirring tension among residents.

Elsewhere, in the hilly village of Ebrine, a stone’s throw away from Batroun, residents have been regularly visiting dozens of displaced families sheltering in two modest schools. This month, an Israeli strike hit a village a short drive away, but that hasn’t stopped some residents from hiring the displaced - for some, to work in olive groves during the harvest season.

Back in Aqaibe, some displaced women from nearby areas have joined Sfeir and others volunteering at the kitchen: chopping vegetables, cooking rice in vats, packaging meals in plastic containers, and having coffee together on the balcony.

“Just because we’re in an area that doesn’t have direct conflict or direct war doesn’t mean that we’re not worried about Beirut or the south,” said Flavia Bechara, who founded the center, as she took a break from chopping onions and potatoes. “We all used to eat the olives and olive oil of the south, and we used to go there to get fruits and vegetables.”

Bechara and several women finished packing dozens of meals for the day, and a group of women came to pick up winter clothes for their kids. Bechara said she isn’t phased by the criticism or questions she gets from some of her neighbors.

“There’s always anxiety,” said Bechara, who just recently could hear strikes a short drive away, in Maisra. “There’s always (the fear) that what is happening there can happen here at any moment.”


Iraq opens arms to Lebanese fleeing Israeli attacks

Iraq opens arms to Lebanese fleeing Israeli attacks
Updated 35 min 11 sec ago
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Iraq opens arms to Lebanese fleeing Israeli attacks

Iraq opens arms to Lebanese fleeing Israeli attacks
  • The UNHCR says some 62 percent of the Lebanese arrivals are women and children
  • Nearly half of the arrivals are being housed in Najaf and also Karbala

BAGHDAD: Israeli bombardment of Lebanon forced Mohammed Fawaz and his family to flee so often that they finally moved many kilometres (miles) away to find respite in central Iraq.

"Wherever we went, danger followed," the 62-year-old white-haired Lebanese man told AFP in the small town of Al-Qassem, sitting with his wife and daughter.

"That's when I thought of Iraq. It was the only way I could see to escape the danger after we saw death with our own eyes."

Opposite the small house where they now live, beyond a road busy with traffic, tall palm trees emblematic of Iraq's Babylon province stretch as far as the eye can see.

According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, more than 19,200 Lebanese have arrived in Iraq since the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon.

The Baghdad government and Shiite religious authorities mobilised quickly to cope with the influx.

So did the Hashed al-Shaabi, an alliance of pro-Iran former paramilitary groups now integrated into Iraq's security forces.

Everyone turned out to welcome the refugees, helping them get to Iraq and also arranging accommodation.

The solidarity has highlighted the close ties between the Shiite communities of both countries.

Iraq had always welcomed Lebanese pilgrims visiting its famous Shiite shrines at Karbala and Najaf.

But now the Baghdad government, in which pro-Iran parties dominate, is also willing to signal it stands staunchly by Lebanon in the wake of daily Israeli attacks on Hezbollah strongholds there.

Fawaz is originally from south Lebanon, and moved to the southern suburbs of Beirut before later moving again to the outskirts of the capital.

Invited guests

"We fled from place to place," the father of four said, bursting into tears when he spoke of relatives back in Lebanon.

"My displaced brothers now live in schools in different areas."

His journey to Iraq included a coach trip across Syria.

After a stopover in the Sayyida Zeinab area south of Damascus, home to a Shiite shrine protected by pro-Iran groups, their entry to Iraq was coordinated by the Hashed al-Shaabi.

Fawaz hailed what he called "the best welcome" and Iraqi generosity, especially from his host, one of many Al-Qassem residents who have opened their doors to Lebanese refugees.

He praised Iraq's government for "treating us like invited guests, not refugees".

The war in Lebanon has displaced at least 1.3 million people, according to the UN migration agency, and more than half a million have fled into neighbouring Syria.

Those who opted to stay often find themselves in makeshift and under-equipped shelters set up in schools.

In other areas, their presence can sometimes provoke unease or mistrust.

Iraq has made things easier for the new arrivals by extending visas. Those with no passports are helped out with new travel documents, in coordination with the Lebanese embassy.

The UNHCR says that some 62 percent of the Lebanese arrivals are women and children, and that the children will be able to attend Iraqi schools.

Nearly half of the arrivals are being housed in Najaf and also Karbala, which is home to the gold-domed mausoleums of the Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas.

The religious authorities have taken over hotels previously reserved for pilgrims.

No alternative

Jalal Assi, who is in his forties, is now in Karbala.

"We had no alternative, and decided to come to Iraq," he told AFP, citing the "facilities offered to Lebanese".

"We hope the situation will get better and security will be restored so we can go home," he added.

Neemat Mussa, 44, originally from the south Lebanese village of Hariss, is now living in the Babylon provincial capital Hilla.

She and her husband, their two daughters and an aunt are staying in a house owned by an Iraqi police officer.

When she does the family shopping she is driven there accompanied by a local benefactor who also foots the bill.

"We chose Iraq because it's a safe place where we are not afraid," she said in a tired voice. It is her first time in the country, although her husband came previously on pilgrimage.

The warmth of Iraq's welcome cannot mask the bitterness of exile.

Mussa has lost her cousin and sister-in-law in the war, and she follows the news intently on her phone.

She weeps when she talks of their loss and of the country to which she longs to return.

"I'm in a comfortable home, and the Iraqis make sure we lack for nothing," she said, adding: "When I got sick, they took me to hospital."

"But I miss my house and my own country, my neighbours and my family. That's my real home."


Outrage as Iran executes German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd

Outrage as Iran executes German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd
Updated 29 October 2024
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Outrage as Iran executes German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd

Outrage as Iran executes German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd
  • Berlin called the execution a “scandal” and warned of “serious consequences” for Iran's “inhumane regime”

TEHRAN: Iran on Monday executed 69-year-old German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd after years in captivity, media in the Islamic Republic said, sparking outrage in Germany and beyond.

Berlin called the execution a “scandal” and warned of “serious consequences” for Iran's “inhumane regime”, while a Norway-based human rights group labelled the execution the “extrajudicial killing of a hostage”.

Sharmahd, a German citizen of Iranian descent and a US resident, was seized by Iranian authorities in 2020 while travelling through the United Arab Emirates, according to his family.

Iran, which does not recognise dual citizenship, announced his arrest after a “complex operation”, without specifying how, where or when he was seized.

Sharmahd was sentenced to death in February 2023 for the capital offence of “corruption on Earth”, a sentence later confirmed by the Iranian Supreme Court.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan website said on Monday that “the death sentence of Jamshid Sharmahd... was carried out this morning.”

He had been convicted of playing a role in a 2008 mosque bombing in the southern city of Shiraz, in which 14 people were killed and 300 wounded.

His family have long maintained that Sharmahd was innocent.

Sharmahd was also accused of leading the Tondar group, which aims to topple the Islamic Republic. Iran classes it as a terrorist organisation.

Sharmahd’s daughter Gazelle said in a post on X that she was waiting for the German and US governments to provide “concrete proof” that her father had been killed.

If so, his body should be brought home "immediately" and the Iranian government should face “severe punishment”, she said.

‘Scandal’

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the killing “shows once again what kind of inhumane regime rules in Tehran: a regime that uses death against its youth, its own population and foreign nationals.”

She added that Berlin had repeatedly made clear “that the execution of a German national would have serious consequences.”

“This underlines the fact that no one is safe under the new government either,” she said in reference to the administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was inaugurated in July.

Baerbock expressed her “heartfelt sympathy” for Sharmahd's family, “with whom we have always been in close contact”, and said the German embassy in Tehran had worked “tirelessly” on his behalf.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also condemned the execution, calling it a “scandal” and adding that “Jamshid Sharmahd did not even receive the opportunity to defend himself against the charges at the trial.”

However, Gazelle Sharmahd accused both the German and US governments of “abandoning” her father in negotiations and said that the family had been ignored.

The director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, called the execution “a case of extrajudicial killing of a hostage aimed at covering up the recent failures of the hostage-takers of the Islamic Republic.”

“Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates and unlawfully transferred to Iran, where he was sentenced to death without a fair trial,” said Amiry-Moghaddam, whose group closely tracks executions in Iran.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights said: “The unlawful abduction of Sharmahd, his subsequent torture in custody, the unfair show trial and today's execution are exemplary of the countless crimes of the Iranian regime.”

Tool for fear

Sharmahd grew up in an Iranian-German family and moved to California in 2003, where he was accused of making statements hostile to both Iran and Islam on television.

Mizan said Sharmahd was “a criminal terrorist” who “was hosted by the United States as well as European countries and was operating under the complex protection of their intelligence services.”

Iran carries out the second highest number of executions worldwide per year after China, according to human rights groups including Amnesty International.

At least 627 people have been executed this year alone by Iran, according to IHR. Rights groups accuse the authorities of using capital punishment as a tool to instill fear throughout society.

Several other Europeans are still being held in Iran, including at least three French citizens.

European Parliament member Hannah Neumann, who chairs the assembly’s Iran delegation, called for a total change in the EU’s policy towards Tehran, the Bild daily reported.

“There were some voices who wanted to wait and see how the regime would develop after Pezeshkian's election,” Neumann said. “This terrible execution shows us clearly how we should judge this new government.”


Israel passes 2 laws restricting UN agency that distributes aid in Gaza

Israel passes 2 laws restricting UN agency that distributes aid in Gaza
Updated 29 October 2024
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Israel passes 2 laws restricting UN agency that distributes aid in Gaza

Israel passes 2 laws restricting UN agency that distributes aid in Gaza
  • Legislation risks collapsing already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza
  • Under first law, UN agency for Palestinian refugees will be banned in Israel 

JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers passed two laws on Monday that could threaten the work of the main UN agency providing aid to people in Gaza by barring it from operating on Israeli soil, severing ties with it and deeming it a terror organization.
The laws, which do not immediately go into effect, signal a new low for a long-troubled relationship between Israel and the UN Israel’s international allies said they were deeply worried about its potential impact on Palestinians as the war’s humanitarian toll is worsening.
Under the first law, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, would be banned from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, while the second would sever diplomatic ties with it. The legislation risks collapsing the already fragile process for distributing aid in Gaza at a moment when Israel is under increased US pressure to ramp up aid.
Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s thousands of staff members participated in the Hamas attacks last year that sparked the war in Gaza. It also has said hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets near or under the agency’s facilities.
The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denies it knowingly aids armed groups and says it acts quickly to purge any suspected militants from its ranks. Some of Israel’s allegations prompted major international donors to cut funding to the agency, although some of it has been restored.
The first vote passed 92-10 and followed a fiery debate between supporters of the law and its opponents, mostly members of Arab parliamentary parties. The second law was approved 87-9.