Iran Closes Prison After Official’s Son Murdered

Image by Saharauiak via Flickr

The Iranian government has imprisoned over 1,500 protesters or demonstrators following the civil unrest which resulted from the circumstances surrounding the June 12, 2009 presidential election.

Many of the people arrested apparently vanished without trace. Those that were imprisoned at the Kahrizak facility included the 25-year-old son of an assistant to Iranian Minister Mohsen Rezai, who was later found murdered in his cell.

The public outcry for release of the prisoners has taken on a new urgency as a result of the media coverage of the incident and today Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, ordered the center at Kahrizak closed because it failed to "preserve the rights of detainees".

All of the prisoners were transferred to Tehran’s Evin Prison creating a huge increase in the already overcrowded conditions existing in the facility. The Iranian media reports that a death occurs every day in Evin Prison, many of which are murders.

The Iranian Parliament has ordered an investigation and Iranian Courts are ordering the immediate processing of the criminal cases which resulted from the arrests following the presidential election, presumably to expeditiously release the prisoners.

Each subsequent event tied to the June 12th election has underscored the government’s incredibly poor judgment in the handling of the public’s discontent over the election results.

Instead of recounting votes to assure the public of the validity of the election results, the government acted with arrogance and belligerence in denying the public’s right to accountability which fueled massive protests in the streets of Tehran.

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