DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is liable for the “bodily violence” that led to the demise of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 and sparked nationwide protests towards the nation’s necessary headband, or hijab, legal guidelines and its ruling theocracy, a U.N. fact-finding mission mentioned Friday.
The stark pronouncement got here in a wide-ranging preliminary report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council by the Truth-Discovering Mission on Iran.
It additionally discovered that the Islamic Republic employed “pointless and disproportionate use of deadly pressure” to place down the demonstrations that erupted following Amini’s demise, and that Iranian safety forces sexually assaulted detainees.
The monthslong safety crackdown killed greater than 500 individuals and noticed over 22,000 detained.
There was no fast touch upon the report from Iran. Iranian officers didn’t reply to requests for remark from The Related Press on the mission’s findings.
The discharge of the report is unlikely to alter the trajectory of Iran’s authorities, now extra firmly within the palms of hard-liners after a low-turnout vote final week put them again answerable for the nation’s parliament.
Nevertheless, it offers additional worldwide strain on Tehran amid wider Western considerations 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 have been unprecedented due to the management of ladies 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 sporting her hijab to the liking of the authorities. She was dropped at Iran’s Vozara detention facility to endure a “re-education class,” however collapsed after 26 minutes and was taken to a hospital half-hour later, in line with the report.
Iran has denied being liable for her demise or that she had been crushed. At occasions, 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 demise.
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.
“Primarily based on the proof and patterns of violence by the morality police within the enforcement of the necessary hijab on girls, the mission is glad that Ms. Amini was subjected to bodily violence that led to her demise,” it mentioned.
The report stops quick, nonetheless, of blaming anybody particularly for harming Amini.
The protests that adopted Amini’s demise 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.
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 demise or critical damage” 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, primarily ‘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 line 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 girls, males and kids,” the report says.
The panel additionally acknowledged it continued to research the 2023 demise of teenager Armita Garavand, who died after falling on the Tehran Metro in what activists allege was an assault over her not sporting a hijab.
Geravand’s mother and father appeared in a state media video on the time saying a blood strain challenge, a fall or maybe each contributed to their daughter’s demise.
“In actions paying homage to Ms. Amini’s case, the state authorities took measures to obfuscate the circumstances resulting in Ms. Garavand’s demise,” the report says.
It additionally famous a suspected spate of poisonings focusing on Iranian schoolgirls, with out drawing conclusions on what transpired within the incidents.
