21 Lawyers: The Investigation into the Torture Case by the Prosecutor of Shush is Illegal

In a letter to the head of the judiciary, 21 lawyers announced that the investigation by the prosecutor of Shush into the complaint of Ismail Bakshi, the representative of the Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers, regarding his torture is "legally unfounded." The letter emphasized that the prosecutor of Shush, due to his duty to supervise judicial agents, is himself "under suspicion of misconduct," and conducting preliminary investigations in this matter by him is "legally unfounded." According to the authors of this letter, the prosecutor, based on Article 11 of the Criminal Procedure Code, "is in the position of the plaintiff in pursuing and filing a public lawsuit" and "cannot act as an impartial authority between the private plaintiff and the accused." Farzaneh Zeylabi, Amir Reisiyaan, Hossein Zaki, Payam Darvishan, Ghazal Lorestani, Hossein Taj, Sajjad Chatrasfid, Hafez Savari, Leila Khosravi, Masoumeh Oraki, Saeed Dehghan, Ahmad Nouraldini, Mansour Shakiba, Jamaleddin Heydari Manesh, Hamidreza Rasouliyan, Mohammadreza Tahmasebi Far, Ana Dashti, Hossein Ali Hatami, Reza Mambini, Maziar Tataei, and Sajjad Khosravi signed this letter. Previously, Farzaneh Zeylabi, Ismail Bakshi's lawyer, had reported that the prosecutor of Shush himself addressed Bakshi's complaint regarding his torture during detention and did not refer this complaint to another branch. She also stated that Mr. Bakshi had filed a complaint against the prosecutor of Shush with the disciplinary court for judges. Ismail Bakshi had previously described the tortures he endured during his detention and stated that agents of the Ministry of Intelligence "beat him and Spideh Ghalean" and subjected them to "various kinds of obscene sexual insults." Spideh Ghalean, a civil activist who was detained alongside Mr. Bakshi, explained the details of her torture during her detention in a video released after his re-arrest. However, officials from the Ministry of Intelligence and the judiciary stated that during the "detention and transfer" of Ismail Bakshi to the detention center, there were "a series of confrontations" between security forces and Mr. Bakshi, but he was "not tortured during detention." Ismail Bakshi and Spideh Ghalean were arrested shortly after their statements about their torture on Sunday, January 30, following the broadcast of the program "Burnt Design" on Iranian television. Meanwhile, these lawyers wrote in their letter that Ismail Bakshi is "currently under attack from organized negative propaganda and false accusations by state television and some officials. Undoubtedly, commenting before the issuance of a verdict is against the law and prohibited." Raha Bahraini, a researcher on Iranian affairs at Amnesty International, expressed concern over the re-arrest of Spideh Ghalean and Ismail Bakshi, stating that this international organization demands their immediate release.