The horrors endured by tens of thousands of Iranians in the post-Islamic Revolution period have been detailed as the Iranian tribunal announced its final verdict. Described as a "great achievement ... a miracle" by one of the survivors, the tribunal found that during the 1980s the Islamic Republic was responsible for the murder of between 15.000 and 20.000 political prisoners.
Inspired by the Russell Tribunal, founded by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre to investigate American war crimes during the Vietnam War, this Hague-based tribunal was established to document and publicize the Islamic regime's crimes against humanity, which it stated British "Independent", also called Iran's Srebrenica after the massacre committed by the forces of former general Ratko Mladić.
The former prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Geoffrey Nice, told the British newspaper: "There are a certain number of such tribunals in the world, but what is characteristic of this one is that it was established and meets the expectations not only of lawyers, but also of the Iranian diaspora itself, people who torture survivor."
In 1981, the new Islamic government in Iran, headed by Ayatollah Khomeini, turned on the leftists and others who had overthrown the autocratic Shah regime two years earlier with the Islamists and gave them two options: reform or be liquidated.
Shekoufeh Sahi, who is currently writing her doctoral thesis at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Political Science, told the tribunal how she was forced to sit motionless blindfolded in a sort of coffin from early dawn until late at night, while being bombarded with Islamist propaganda and videos. "confessions" of other prisoners that were forced through torture.
"During the 1980s, the Islamic Republic of Iran began arresting, imprisoning and liquidating thousands of Iranian citizens because their beliefs and political engagement conflicted with those of the regime," the tribunal's judges wrote. "The religious fervor of these crimes makes them all the more shocking: for example, the rape of a woman was often the act that preceded the execution, since under Sharia law, it is not permissible to execute a virgin."
As Sahi explained, there was nothing unforeseen and accidental about the regime's long reign of terror. As a 14-year-old leftist in Tehran, she participated in the revolt against the Shah alongside the Islamists, but in 1982 things changed.
"At the time, Iran was at war with Iraq and the mood of the regime was 'if you're not with us, then you're against us.' Revolutionaries like me were considered counter-revolutionaries and five-columnists. They split the country in half."
In June 1981, arrests and mass executions began, and Sahi was arrested the following February.
"Those who were in prison during the Shah said that this was much worse. The big difference was that they didn't go after the big organizations – the organization I belonged to had already disbanded – but they went after everyone who was motivated to be 'different'. There were so many high school and university students in the prison that you could barely move. The project implied a massive conversion". Executions were a way to soften and convert the youth.
Geoffrey Nice commented: “This tribunal is a very significant thing. The most important thing is that people can say what happened and that it can be recorded. Pressure could now be put on the UN to set up its own commission of inquiry."
The Iranian government was invited to attend testimony at the Tribunal, but did not participate or respond to the invitation.
Treatment in a casket
The more stubborn ones like Šekoufeh received the "coffin treatment" - nine months of sensory deprivation and complete immobility. "It was terrible psychological torture," she said. "You couldn't move, talk, cough, sneeze, and if you did, they would beat you. Sermons and Islamic teachings were constantly played over the public address system. The point was to take away a person's identity - to make you an empty shell and then fill you with their garbage. After two or three months, I felt myself losing my sanity and control over my sense of reality. Many people experienced a nervous breakdown."
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