"Serious Risk Of Torture And Death": Iran Protest Prisoners Sound Alarm

 

Iranian campaigners arrested in a crackdown over anti-government and anti-hijab protests sparked by the death of an Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini are at risk of being tortured, according to a human rights group.

Recently, reports emerged that Hossein Ronaghi, an Iranian blogger and political dissident who was imprisoned for his role in the protests, maybe in danger in prison. His brother Hassan Ronaghi wrote in a tweet that "the Islamic Republic of Iran intends to kill my brother Hossein." He said that Iranian officials kept him in prison without treatment and medicine, with a broken leg and a sick body, while he was vomiting blood.

He is just one of several prominent rights activists, journalists and lawyers who have been arrested in Iran. Human rights activists claim that he may never emerge alive from the notorious facility in Iran.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, said, "Detainees who are often forcibly disappeared are at serious risk of torture and death. Urgent action by the international community is crucial at this point.”

He said that thousands of people had been arrested across the country in the violent crackdown, including at least 36 journalists, 170 students, 14 lawyers and over 580 civil society activists.

Protests erupted in the Islamic Republic after the death of Amini. Iranian morality police arrested her on September 13 because she was wearing a loose Hijab. They forcefully took her to the detention centre for her lesson on Hijab. However, Amini collapsed at the detention centre and lost consciousness. She was in a coma for three days. She was pronounced dead on September 16. Her funeral ceremony took place in her hometown in Saqqez.  After Amini's funeral ceremony, protests spread further in other Iranian cities. Human rights activists said that the morality police beat Amini with a baton. People took to the streets, demanding justice for Amini.