Iranian opposition leader wants investigation into whether detainees raped

September 18th, 2009 TEHRAN - The father of an Iranian student, who died in jail after being arrested for protesting against President Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, has claimed that his son was beaten, got his bones broken and toenails pulled out while in prison. Amir Javadifar, 24, was so badly beaten that he had to treated in hospital before being taken to the notorious Evin prison, Times Online reports.

September 12th, 2009 Iran judiciary rejects opposition rape allegationsTEHRAN, Iran — A high-level Iranian judicial panel rejected claims made by a pro-reform presidential candidate that detained protesters were raped and demanded those making the allegations be prosecuted, the state news agency said Saturday. The ruling ratchets up the pressure on Mahdi Karroubi, one of the most prominent reformist leaders challenging the legitimacy of the president's re-election and the entire governing system.

September 11th, 2009 TEHRAN - A teenaged engineering student has revealed that he was locked up, beaten and raped multiple times for daring to protest against President Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election. "When I first participated in the protests I was not demonstrating against the Leader or the Islamic Republic.

August 29th, 2009 Hardline prosecutor in Iran opposition trial firedTEHRAN, Iran — Iran's new judiciary chief has fired the hard-line prosecutor involved in the mass trial of opposition activists charged with seeking to topple the ruling system through a "velvet revolution," state media reported Saturday. Saeed Mortazavi, the Tehran prosecutor, is detested by reformists who call him the "butcher of the press" and "torturer of Tehran" because he was behind the closure of more than 120 newspapers and the imprisonment of dozens of journalists and political activists in the past decade.

August 18th, 2009 Imprisoned Iranian activists hospitalizedTEHRAN, Iran — Two prominent Iranian opposition activists have been hospitalized, one after being beaten by his jailers for refusing to attend trial, the other from a nine-day hunger strike, a reformist Web site reported Tuesday. Iran's top opposition leaders, meanwhile, announced they were joining a new grassroots reformist movement to present a united front against the government.

August 14th, 2009 TEHRAN - A hardline ayatollah close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Friday for the prosecution of moderate cleric Mehdi Karroubi for alleging that rapes were carried out in Iranian prisons. Karroubi, who is also the leader of the opposition party Etemad Melli, claimed Tuesday that some young women and men detained after the June 12 presidential election have been brutally raped in jail.

August 14th, 2009 Iran reformist leader says he has torture accountsTEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian opposition leader says he received reports of protesters detained after the country's disputed presidential election being tortured to death in jail. Mahdi Karroubi says he got testimonies from prisoners who say they were abused while in detention and from those who say they saw others being brutally tortured, some to death.

August 14th, 2009 Iran reformist leader presses torture allegationsTEHRAN, Iran — A hard-line cleric said Friday that an Iranian opposition leader should be prosecuted for claiming that detained protesters were raped by their jailers in the country's postelection crackdown. Despite the uproar, the opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, pushed ahead with criticism, saying some detainees were tortured to death in the crackdown and said he had reports of Abu Ghraib-like abuses.

August 13th, 2009 UN expert receives claims of prison abuse in IranGENEVA — A U.N. anti-torture investigator said Thursday he has received credible claims that Iranian protesters detained after the June 12 presidential elections were abused in prison.

August 12th, 2009 TEHRAN - Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani Wednesday dismissed allegations that protesters detained in the post-election unrest were raped as "sheer lies". "Following a precise and comprehensive inquiry into (the treatment of) detainees at Kahrizak and Evin prisons, no cases of rape or sexual abuse were found," Larijani was quoted as saying by the Press TV.

August 12th, 2009 Iran speaker denies prisoner rape allegationsTEHRAN, Iran — Iran's parliament speaker on Wednesday denied allegations made by a defeated pro-reform presidential candidate that protesters detained after the disputed election were raped by their jailers, state media reported. Ali Larijani told an open session of parliament that a parliamentary investigation found no truth to the rape allegations made by Mahdi Karroubi over the weekend.

August 11th, 2009 Iran opposition leader says 69 dead in unrestTEHRAN,Iran — A top aide of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has handed over a list of 69 victims of the post-election crackdown to parliament. Ali Reza Beheshti told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the list also includes 220 detained and should by no means be considered exhuastive.

August 11th, 2009 Iran opposition puts election unrest toll at 69TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's opposition said Tuesday at least 69 people have died in two months of postelection unrest based on accounts from the victims' families, more than double the official toll released by parliament. A top aide to Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader who claims he was the true winner of the June 12 presidential vote, handed the list over to parliament.

August 10th, 2009 Claims of savage rape emerge from Iran's prisonsTEHRAN, Iran —An Iranian opposition leader said Sunday that detained protesters are alleging male and female prisoners were savagely raped by their jailers to the point of physical and mental damage. Mahdi Karroubi, one of two defeated pro-reform candidates in the disputed June 12 presidential election, said he has received the reports of rapes from former military commanders and other senior officials and he called for an investigation.

June 26th, 2009 Obama doesn't take apology demand seriouslyWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he doesn't take seriously the demand from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for an apology. The Iranian leader made that demand while accusing Obama of meddling in Iranian affairs by speaking in support of the demonstrators challenging the results of Iran's election.