Tehran Penitentiary Guards Launch “Brutal” Attack on
Imprisoned Sufi Muslims
ضرب و شتم دراویش در ندامتگاه تهران بزرگ و
انتقال به سلول انفرادی
AUGUST
31, 2018
Guards in Iran’s Great Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) attacked and beat detainees inside
Ward 3 of the prison on August 29, 2018, and moved some of them into solitary
confinement.
The detainees are Sufi Muslims
belonging to the Gonabadi Order—also referred to as dervishes—a persecuted
religious minority in Iran.
Niloufar Dowlatshah, the wife
of detained Sufi, Mohsen Azizi, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI)
on August 29 that the authorities had also threatened the detainees’ families
who had gathered outside the prison to go home or risk being arrested.
“The authorities denied that
anyone had been beaten and told the families that it was just a normal incident
and the situation was calm,” Dowlatshah told CHRI. “Do they think it’s normal
to severely beat the prisoners?”
“One of the detainees contacted
his family from inside prison and said the attack by the guards against the
inmates was very brutal,” she added.
KAYHAN JAMME
