Amnesty International urged the authorities of Iran’s regime to immediately release Mahmoud Baluchi Razi, a sixteen-year-old child. According to the human rights organization, he was arbitrarily arrested about two weeks ago and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in order to force his father to surrender.
In a statement issued on Friday, December 19, Amnesty International referred to the arrest of Baluchi Razi at his school in Nikshahr County in Sistan and Baluchestan province by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, Iran’s main intelligence agency, on December 7, writing that by refusing for several days to disclose his fate and place of detention to his family, the authorities exposed him to enforced disappearance.
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According to the statement, Amnesty International researchers learned that interrogators subjected Baluchi Razi to “beatings” and forced him to contact his family and tell them that his father must surrender in order to secure his son’s release.
Amnesty International noted that Baluchi Razi has been denied access to a lawyer and stated that he is being held in a juvenile detention center in Kerman province, about 800 kilometers away from his family’s place of residence. The organization called for him to be protected against torture and any further ill-treatment and to be granted immediate access to his family and a lawyer.
The human rights organizations had previously reported that the arrest of Baluchi Razi, a sixteen-year-old Baluch child, was carried out by forces of the Intelligence Department of Kerman province through a raid on his school in the village of Chanf, located in Nikshahr County.
The organization added that the arrest was carried out “without presenting a judicial warrant.”
According to the reports, security institutions of the Iranian regime have repeatedly used the arrest of children and relatives of wanted individuals or dissidents as a means of pressure, and this practice has a long history in Sistan and Baluchestan province and has consistently raised concern among human rights organizations.
Iran’s regime repeatedly uses pressure on the families and children of political activists and opponents as a tool of repression. This method has intensified in recent years and is employed to force detainees into cooperation or televised forced confessions.
