Tehran, August 24: A group of lawmakers plan to meet leading opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi over his allegations regarding sexual assault on Iranian post-vote detainees.
“Members of Majlis special committee tasked with investigating the post-election incidents will meet with Karroubi on Monday to receive documents about his rape allegations in Kahrizak prison,” Etemad-e Melli’s news website, Saham News reported.
“The meeting will be held at the order of Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani,” it added.
Defeated presidential candidate Karroubi broached the subject of “jail rape” in a letter to Head of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani on July 29.
In his letter, Karroubi claimed that a number of detainees had informed him that several women and men, arrested over the course of post-vote demonstrations, were ‘sexually assaulted’ by their jailers.
His claims were later rejected as a ‘lie’ by Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani arguing that a ‘thorough and comprehensive’ inquiry into the issue found no cases of sexual abuse.
Larijani, however, said that if Karroubi could present evidence of the prisoners’ abuse issue, then Majlis would investigate them.
Karroubi, adamant in his claim, once again brought up the issue in a letter to Larijani on Wednesday.
He called on the speaker to organize a meeting with the country’s top officials so that he can present evidence of the alleged sexual assaults.
Spokesman of the committee Kazem Jalali said on Sunday that
Karroubi could present his documents to Majlis, adding, “We expect the cleric would have submitted such cases to us.”
The ‘non-standard’ prison of Kahrizak was shut down upon a direct order by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in July after reports surfaced about the mistreatment of detainees who protested against the result of the disputed presidential vote.
After the closure of the facility, the head of the prison was removed of his responsibilities and arrested for ‘dereliction of duty’. Two of the ‘security and supervisory’ officials, who had ordered unauthorized interrogation techniques, were relieved of duty as well.
Twelve Iranian police officers and one judge were also removed from their posts in connection with the notorious detention center and are now awaiting prosecution.
—–Agencies