A total of 15 rights organizations issued a joint statement calling on the international community to urge the Iranian authorities to immediately cease their reprisals against the Iran Atrocities (Aban) Tribunal’s witnesses and their families.
An international-popular court in London started last November hearing testimonies of more than 300 former detainees in addition to their families as well as current and former medical cadres and officials.
“Since mid-November 2021, Iranian authorities, including Ministry of Intelligence agents, have subjected at least six Tribunal witnesses and/or their families to a litany of abuses, including arbitrary arrest and detention.
As such, these violations constitute a form of torture, or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.”
“The Iranian authorities have subjected Amin Ansarifar, whose son Farzad Ansarifar was killed by security forces on 16 November 2019 during the protests in Behbahan, Khuzestan province, and his family, to harassment since he testified at the hearings in November 2021,” added the statement.
“The authorities have ordered relatives in Iran to cut ties with Tribunal witnesses based abroad and publicly denounce their testimonies or face consequences including detention and other harm to them and their family members, including children,” read the statement.
“We further reiterate our call on the UN Human Rights Council to establish an investigative and accountability mechanism on Iran to collect, analyze and preserve evidence of crimes under international law committed in Iran to facilitate fair criminal proceedings in the future.”
The statement concluded, “To date, no public official has been investigated, let alone held accountable, for ordering, committing or acquiescing to the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law committed during and in the aftermath of the protests.”
Protests erupted in Iran on 15 November 2019 over a sudden overnight increase in the price of fuel.
Amnesty International has released details of the deaths of 304 men, during last November’s crackdown.
