Tehran, September 14: The Iranian judiciary panel looking into post-election events says its work is not over, despite having rejected claims that prisoners were sexually abused.
“The three-member panel is still active. Its first report was about claims made by [Mehdi] Karroubi,” Iran’s Chief Prosecutor Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said during a Sunday night televised interview.
“However, the panel is still investigating other issues such the [attack on Tehran] University dormitories and the events that took place in Kahrizak [prison],” added the prosecutor, who is one of the three panel members.
Mohseni-Ejei’s comments came a day after the panel released a formal report and dismissed allegations made by former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi that post-vote detainees had been sexually assaulted in Iranian jails.
The panel concluded that there was no proof that people who the opposition figure claimed had been raped, had been subjected to such abuse.
The report also urged “firm action against people who acted against national interests after the presidential election and damaged the credibility of the Islamic establishment”.
Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Larijani set up the three-member panel to investigate post-vote events. The panel’s other two members are Deputy Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi and Judiciary adviser Ali Khalafi.
Kahrizak prison, which is located in southern Tehran, was used as a detention center during the July 10 protests. Up to 145 detainees were temporarily taken to Kahrizak because of the limitations at Evin Prison, in the north of the capital.
However, when news came out that detainees had been maltreated at Kahrizak, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ordered the prison to be shutdown and those responsible to be punished.
But unfortunately, before the order was issued the dire conditions at the prison had already claimed several lives.
Tehran University student were also attacked in their dormitories during the protests that followed Iran’s tenth presidential election.
Investigation teams have been asked to look into those attacks.
—–Agencies