Repression persists in Iran, says UN fact-finding mission
Iran continues to crack down on people suspected of involvement in the Iranian women's rights protest that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in September, a UN fact-finding mission said Thursday.
An unprecedented, harshly repressed protest erupted in Iran following the death in custody on 16 September 2022 of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, three days after she was detained by morality police for violating the strict dress code that imposes the veil on women in the Islamic Republic.
On 24 November, the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council voted to set up an international investigation.
In December it was entrusted to three women: Sara Hosssain, a lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Shaheen Sardar Ali, professor of Pakistani law at the University of Warwick (UK), and Viviana Krsticevic, director of the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) in Argentina.
Hossain, who chaired the mission, told the Council that, ten months on, the Amini family's right "to truth and justice remains a dead letter".
"The lack of transparency surrounding the investigations into her death is also evident in the continued detention of the two journalists, Niluufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were the first to report on the event," she added.
Iran has announced that 22,000 people have been pardoned in connection with the protests, which "suggests that many others are in prison or facing charges", according to Hossain.
No official data is available on the nature of the charges or on any convictions, arrests or indictments related to the demonstrations, he added.
Hossain explained that, according to press reports, the pardoned protesters had been forced to express remorse and to "effectively admit their guilt" by signing written pledges not to commit "similar crimes" in the future.
"Severe sentences continue to be imposed on those participating in protests, including for exercising rights protected by international human rights law," she stressed.
"Most frighteningly, seven men have already been executed following hasty proceedings marred by serious allegations of violations of fair trial rights, including confessions obtained under torture."
The fact-finding mission called on Tehran to halt the executions of those sentenced to death because of the protests and to release all those detained for peacefully gathering and disseminating information about the protests.
Ms. Hossain called on Tehran to cooperate with the investigation.
