Reuters: Iran's speaker of parliament on Wednesday rejected as "baseless" an opposition leader's accusation that some moderates had been raped in jails after their detention in unrest following the June election.
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran's speaker of parliament on Wednesday rejected as "baseless" an opposition leader's accusation that some moderates had been raped in jails after their detention in unrest following the June election.
"Based on parliament's investigations, detainees have not been raped or sexually abused in Iran's Kahrizak and Evin prisons. Such claims are totally baseless," Iran's state television quoted Ali Larijani as saying.
Defeated moderate candidate Mehdi Karoubi said Sunday some protesters, both men and women, had been raped in prison.
Many of the post-election detainees were held in south Tehran's Kahrizak prison, built to house people breaching vice laws. At least three people died in custody there and widespread anger erupted as reports of abuse in jail spread.
Last month Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the closure of the "sub-standard" detention center at Kahrizak. Iranian authorities have acknowledged some protesters were tortured at Kahrizak and said its director had been jailed.
Karoubi said he had written 10 days earlier to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads a powerful arbitration body, asking for an inquiry, but had received no response.
A committee set up by Karoubi and another defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi to pursue the issue submitted a list of 69 people killed in protests to parliament Monday. The list contradicted the official figure of 26 deaths.
The opposition says the poll was rigged, defying Khamenei who endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's e-election.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Jon Hemming)
