HRW report on Iran: “You Can Detain Anyone for Anything”

Human Rights Watch publicou esta semana un informe sobre Irán, centrado na falta de liberdades civís (expresión, asociación…), así como nas frecuentes detencións por motivos políticos, que as autoridades disfrazan con leis especiais de “seguridade do Estado”.

O informe leva por título “You Can Detain Anyone for Anything”: Iran’s Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism. Copio e pego un extracto da súa introducción:

Individuals from an ever widening range of groups in Iran are subject to arrest on security grounds for political activism and peaceful dissent against the government. Those arrested are frequently detained in facilities operating outside the regular prison administration, most notoriously in Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, where they may be subjected to torture and abusive interrogation. After weeks or months the authorities frequently release those held on conditional bail or a suspended prison sentence, using the ever-present threat of a return to jail to intimidate them against further activism or open dissent. [...]

A set of laws within Iran’s Islamic Penal Code entitled “Offenses Against the National and International Security of the Country” (“Security Laws”), provide the government wide scope for suppressing any peaceful activity it perceives as critical of its policies. Iranian law also has grounds for denying basic due process rights to security detainees. Although the Iranian Constitution, Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Citizens Rights Law include a number of provisions on detainees’ rights and methods of interrogation, Iranian law also includes grounds for denying some of these rights and straying from prescribed procedures. More than in any other period in recent Iranian history, the authorities have used security legislation as a pretext for politically motivated arrests and detention. Often there is no warrant or other legal basis given for the arrest; instead the authorities interrogate detainees without an attorney present with the intention of “fishing” for a charge. This report begins by outlining the due process rights under Iran’s criminal procedure code, as well as the security-related provisions that effectively undercut those rights. [...]

Human Rights Watch is calling on the government of Iran to amend or abolish the vague security laws and other legislation that allow the government to arbitrarily suppress and punish individuals for peaceful political expression, association and assembly in breach of international human rights treaties to which Iran is party. It is also calling on the government to treat detainees in accordance with international standards [...]