Iran Reformist Publishes Prison Rape Account

First official acknowledgment of post-election state violence

(NEWSER) - A man arrested in the upheaval following Iran's presidential election was beaten to death in jail, Iranian media reported yesterday—offering the first official acknowledgment that a detained protester died after the disputed vote. Officials had originally said the man died of an illness, but a coroner's report said he suffered "repeated blows and severe physical injuries." The death took place at the notorious Kahrizak prison, which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has since ordered closed. More»

(NEWSER) - Iranian protesters, both male and female, were raped in a notorious prison in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election, one of the defeated candidates alleged today. Reformist Mehdi Karroubi wrote on his website that senior prison officials told him about "really shameful issues," including sexual violence that "caused serious injuries." Last week Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the prison closed; its director has been arrested. More»

(NEWSER) - The top body investigating the results of the recent election is asking Iran’s supreme leader to give it more time to clear up any and all “ambiguities,” Reuters reports. “We are urging you to allow us to extend the deadline to receive further complaints five more days,” the Guardian Council wrote to Ayatollah Khamenei. The Council has rejected opposition demands for a do-over. More»

Attempt to confront Iran's Supreme Leader led to Ahmadinejad's losses

(NEWSER) - In a battle of conservative hardliners versus conservative hardliners in Iran's elections on Friday , the winners were ... the conservative hardliners. But in this case, it is the conservatives opposed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who appear to have come out on top, taking upward of 80% of the seats in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to one anti-Ahmadinejad hardliner. Ahmadinejad's defeat was so thorough that even his sister, running in her family's home region, lost her bid (which one analyst saw as a "possible sign of fraud." ). More»

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urges high turnout

(AP) - Iran's supreme leader urged Iranians to vote in large numbers as the country holds parliamentary elections today, saying a high turnout would send a strong message to the enemies of the nation amid the nuclear standoff with the West. The balloting for the 290-member parliament is the first major voting since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 and the mass protests and crackdowns that followed. More»