By Kayhan Life Staff
Tara Ahmadi, a 16-year-old girl arrested by security forces in the city of Javanrud in the western province of Kermanshah, reportedly tried to take her own life after her release, according to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
Hengaw describes itself as an independent human rights organization reporting on human rights violations in Iran’s western province of Kurdistan.
Agents from the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) arrested Ms. Ahmadi and two other teenage girls, Sonia Karimi 14, and Paria Fathi 14, on unspecified charges on Aug. 24, the report said.
“Authorities released the three teenagers the following day,” Hengaw said, quoting a source familiar with the situation. “Shortly after her release, Tara Ahmadi returned home where she tried to hang herself.”
Ms. Ahmadi, who is reportedly in critical condition, is in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Javanrud’s Hazrat Rasul Hospital, sources familiar with the situation told Hengaw.
Many former prisoners and their families have spoken about systematic mistreatment, torture, physical and even sexual abuse in Iranian prisons.
Surveillance footage leaked to social media by an Iranian hacker group, Edalat-e Ali (“Ali’s Justice”), last week showed guards at Tehran’s Evin Prison beating a man in handcuffs, as well as a fight between a guard and another man in uniform.
The footage sparked public outrage, prompting the head of Iran’s Prison Organizations, Mohammad Mehdi Haj-Mohammadi, to issue an apology for the “unacceptable behavior.” The head of Iran’s Judiciary, Mohsen Ejei, called for an investigation into the incident.
Other Iranian officials have dismissed reports on the systematic abuse of prisoners, describing them as “unfounded.”
“The Zionists created the footage of the Evin Prison,” Hassan Nowrouzi, the deputy chair of the Majlis’ (Iranian Parliament) Judicial Committee, said. “Why should the Islamic Republic torture prisoners? There is no reason for that.”
“There is no reason to torture someone who is serving a 10-year prison sentence,” Mr. Nowrouzi argued. “We do not tolerate tortures in Iranian prisons.”
“Zionists who aim to divert the public’s attention away from America’s and Zionists’ humiliating defeat in Afghanistan and Afghan prisons created the footage of the Evin Prison,” Nowrouzi alleged.
