NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee chair, Mohammad Mohaddessin welcomed the latest comments by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemning the recent flogging sentenced issued and carried out by the clerical regime on 35 innocent youth who threw a graduation party.
Flogging people for petty offences is the most brutal means of punishment practiced by the medieval clerical regime often in recent days.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned on May 31 the “outrageous flogging” of dozens of young Iranians last week in Qazvin, north-west of Tehran.
“We condemn the outrageous flogging of up to 35 young men and women in Iran last week, after they were caught holding a graduation party together in Qazvin, north of Tehran,” said a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
“Flogging is prohibited under international human rights law, in particular the Convention against Torture. The UN Committee against Torture, the Human Rights Committee and UN Special Rapporteurs have repeatedly voiced serious concerns about States’ use of flogging, highlighting in particular its use against women, and have called for its abolition. For the authorities to have meted out this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment – which could amount to torture – is completely disproportionate and abhorrent,” it said.
Ismaeil Sadeqi Niaraki, a notorious mullah who is the regime’s Prosecutor in Qazvin, said last Thursday that a special court session was held after all the young men and women at the party were rounded up.
“After we received information that a large number of men and women were mingling in a villa in the suburbs of Qazvin … all the participants at the party were arrested,” he said.
Niaraki added that the following morning every one of those detained received 99 lashes as punishment by the so-called ‘Morality Police.’
“Thanks God that the police questioning, investigation, court hearing, verdict and implementation of the punishment all took place in less than 24 hours,” Niaraki added.
The Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “In another case, 17 mine workerswere reportedly flogged in Western Azerbaijan province in Iran this month for protesting the dismissal of 350 workers from the Agh Dara gold mine.”
“While we do not have a reliable estimate on the use of flogging in the country, reports suggest that it is used regularly for a wide range of perceived offences.”
“We urge the Iranian authorities to cease the use of this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” the UN human rights body added.