Iran responsible for violence that killed Mahsa Amini: UN probe

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Jon Gambrell

Printed Mar 08, 2024  •  4 minute learn

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is accountable for the “bodily violence” that led to the dying of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 and sparked nationwide protests towards the nation’s obligatory scarf, or hijab, legal guidelines and its ruling theocracy, a U.N. fact-finding mission stated Friday.

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The stark pronouncement got here in a wide-ranging preliminary report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council by the Reality-Discovering Mission on Iran that concluded Tehran dedicated “crimes towards humanity” by means of its actions.

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It additionally discovered that the Islamic Republic employed “pointless and disproportionate use of deadly drive” to place down the demonstrations that erupted following Amini’s dying and that Iranian safety forces sexually assaulted detainees.

The monthslong safety crackdown killed greater than 500 folks and noticed over 22,000 detained.

Iranian officers didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark from The Related Press on the mission’s findings.

The report is unlikely to alter the trajectory of Iran’s authorities, now extra firmly within the arms of hard-liners after a low-turnout vote final week put them again in control of the nation’s parliament.

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Nevertheless, it offers additional worldwide strain on Tehran amid wider Western issues about its advancing nuclear program, Iran’s arming of Russia in Moscow’s struggle on Ukraine and the continued harassment and imprisonment of activists, together with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.

“The protests had been unprecedented due to the management of girls and youth, of their attain and longevity and, in the end, the state’s violent response,” the report says.

Amini, 22, died on Sept. 16, 2022, in a hospital after her arrest by the nation’s morality police over allegedly not carrying her hijab to the liking of the authorities. She was taken to Iran’s Vozara detention facility to bear a “re-education class,” however collapsed after 26 minutes and was moved to a hospital half-hour later, in accordance with the report.

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Iran has denied being accountable for her dying or disputes she was overwhelmed. At instances, authorities have pointed to a medical situation Amini had from childhood after a surgical procedure. The U.N. report dismissed that as a explanation for her dying.

The panel “has established the existence of proof of trauma to Ms. Amini’s physique, inflicted whereas within the custody of the morality police,” the report says.

“Based mostly on the proof and patterns of violence by the morality police within the enforcement of the obligatory hijab on ladies, the mission is glad that Ms. Amini was subjected to bodily violence that led to her dying,” it stated.

The report stops brief, nonetheless, of blaming anybody particularly for harming Amini.

The protests that adopted Amini’s dying began first with the mantra “Ladies, Life, Freedom.” Nevertheless, the protesters’ chanting and cries quickly grew into open calls of revolt towards Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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The U.N. report discovered Iranian safety forces used shotguns, assault rifles and submachine weapons towards demonstrators “in conditions the place there was no imminent menace of dying or critical harm” to them, “thereby committing illegal and extrajudicial killings.”

It additionally discovered a sample of protesters being shot deliberately within the eye.

“The mission notes the deterrent and chilling impact of such accidents, as they completely marked the victims, basically ‘branding’ them as protesters,” the report says.

A few of these detained confronted sexual violence, together with rape, the specter of rape, compelled nudity, groping and electrocution of their genitals, in accordance with the report.

“The safety forces performed on social and cultural stigma linked to sexual and gender-based violence to unfold worry and humiliate and punish ladies, males and kids,” the report says.

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The panel additionally acknowledged it continued to analyze the 2023 dying of teenager Armita Garavand, who died after falling on the Tehran Metro in what activists allege was an assault over her not carrying a hijab.

Geravand’s dad and mom appeared in a state media video on the time saying a blood strain challenge, a fall or maybe each contributed to their daughter’s dying.

“In actions paying homage to Ms. Amini’s case, the state authorities took measures to obfuscate the circumstances resulting in Ms. Garavand’s dying,” the report says.

It additionally famous a suspected spate of poisonings concentrating on Iranian schoolgirls, with out drawing conclusions on what transpired within the incidents.

U.S. Deputy Particular Envoy for Iran Abram Paley stated the “complete world is taking discover” of the report and “its conclusion that most of the critical human rights violations which have taken place in Iran could quantity to crimes towards humanity.”

“It’s crucial that the Reality-Discovering Mission proceed its vital work,” he wrote on-line.

Activists additionally welcomed the report’s launch.

“The Islamic Republic’s violent repression of peaceable dissent and extreme discrimination towards ladies and women in Iran has been confirmed as constituting nothing wanting crimes towards humanity,” stated Hadi Ghaemi, the manager director of the New York-based CenIran is accountable for the “bodily violence” that led to the dying of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 ter for Human Rights in Iran.

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