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06/01/2004: "Free Iran praises Ahmad Batebi"

According to Free Iran, "Ahmad Batebi, [is] a student leader thrown in jail for holding a bloodied T-shirt in front of reporters". They ask for help in publicizing his -- and all Iranians -- cause. According to Amnesty International,

Ahmad Batebi said in the open letter that soldiers bound his hands and secured them to plumbing pipes. They beat his head and abdominal area with soldiers’ shoes. They insisted that he sign a confession of the accusations made against him. The next day, he was thrown onto the floor, they stood on his neck and cut off all his hair and parts of his scalp causing it to bleed. They beat him so severely with their heavy shoes that he lost consciousness, and when he regained consciousness, they started their actions again, ordering him to write and sign a "confession". When he refused, they took him to another room, blindfolded him and secured his bound hands to the window bars.

During his interrogations, they threatened several times to execute Ahmad Batebi and to torture and rape his family members as well as imprison them for long terms. The investigators ordered him to confess to false allegations and under extreme duress, he signed a "confession" fearing that they would carry out their threats to him and his family.

As far as Amnesty International is aware, no official investigation has been undertaken to examine the above allegations of torture made by Ahmad Batebi.

A couple of caveats. First, Mr. Batebi was merely beaten and forced to sign a confession, he was not put in a naked pyramid a la Abu Ghraib. Second (this one serious), we can't be sure how serious his crimes were; while I trust the "Free Iran" people more than Iran's mullacracy, I'm not ready to call them impartial observers. His crime may be closer to fighting security forces and inciting riots than displaying dirty underwear.

That said, Iran is currently being run by an unpopular, evil regime. The least we can do to help Iran's freedom loving students is to highlight the regime's evil behavior.