Iranian opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi announced Sunday that he has received reports of jailers raping prisoners during the government crackdown on protesters after June’s disputed presidential election. Karroubi, a reformist candidate defeated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the election, has stated that former senior officials notified him of the abuses, reports the Associated Press.
In a letter he posted on his website and sent to cleric and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Karroubi wrote, “A number of detainees have stated that some female detainees were so severely raped that their genitals were damaged. Others savagely raped young boys so that they suffer from depression and serious physical and mental damage,” according to the AP.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani announced Monday that a committee would investigate reports of prison abuses, including the rapes, according to the Times Online. Senior judiciary officials recently acknowledged that some detainees were abused in prison and that those responsible should be punished.
