Amnesty International blasts Iran’s human rights violations

Iran Focus: London, May 23 – The international human rights organisation Amnesty International blasted human rights abuses in Iran in 2005 in its annual report on the state of the world’s human rights. Iran Focus

London, May 23 – The international human rights organisation Amnesty International blasted human rights abuses in Iran in 2005 in its annual report on the state of the world’s human rights.

“Scores of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, continued to serve prison sentences imposed following unfair trials in previous years”, Amnesty said, adding that hundreds more were arrested in 2005.

The report accused Iranian authorities of arbitrarily detaining internet journalists and human rights without access to family or legal representation, often initially in “secret detention centres”.

Torture remained commonplace, the report said. “Torture continued to be routine in many prisons and detention centres. … Denial of medical treatment to put pressure on political prisoners emerged as an increasingly common practice”.

Amnesty said that at least eight people who were under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged offence were executed.

“Many sentences of flogging were imposed. The true number of those executed or subjected to corporal punishment was believed to be considerably higher than the cases reported”, it said.