Commander of Police: One Complaint of Rape and Two Complaints of Robbery in Qazvin Case

Hosseini Ashtari, the commander of Iran's police force, referred to some reports regarding an alleged "gang rape" in Qazvin as "public anxiety" while confirming that in this case, three individuals have filed complaints, including one for "rape by force." According to ISNA, on Wednesday, November 6, the police chief stated to reporters that only "one case of rape by force" occurred in Qazvin, but that the news claiming armed groups used firearms to tie individuals to trees and assault them is incorrect. Mr. Ashtari emphasized that the incident was not as reported by the media and that some websites and news agencies "misrepresented the issue," leading to "public anxiety." He urged that "media should obtain accurate information from judicial and police authorities before publishing news." The newspaper Farhikhtegan reported on Tuesday that "10 individuals, three of whom were armed," had attacked groups of girls and boys who had gone for recreation to "one of the forests of Barajin and the Zarshak road" in northern Qazvin more than three times in recent months, threatening young boys with firearms and assaulting the girls in the group. According to this report, an indictment for execution has been issued for the suspects who were arrested a month ago. In response to this report, Jamal Ansari, the head of the judiciary in Qazvin province, announced that this case of "rape by force" is under investigation in the "Criminal Court One," but simultaneously called rumors about "assaults on schoolgirls" in this case "utterly false." A day after these statements, the prosecutor of Qazvin announced that so far, "assault has not been proven" and that "contrary to speculation, organized crime and similar incidents do not exist." Ismail Sadeqi Niyarki also reported that a "19-year-old boy" and "several of his accomplices" were arrested solely for "theft." Now, ISNA reports quoting Hossein Ashtari, the commander of the Iranian police, that the Qazvin case has "three complainants," one of whom filed a complaint for rape by force, while the others complained about extortion and theft by the suspects. He added that this incident occurred in the second half of Shahrivar and that "all criminals have been arrested" in cooperation with judicial authorities. In a report published by the Farhikhtegan newspaper, the Qazvin incident was compared to an incident of assault on participants of a private party in Khomeini Shahr on June 24, 2011, where "13 individuals" armed with cold weapons entered one of the gardens around Khomeini Shahr in Isfahan, detained eight male participants of a private party, and abducted six women present at the party to another location where they were assaulted. However, regarding the recent incident, the prosecutor of Qazvin stated that the claims of some complainants regarding "assault" have not yet been "proven," and in rejecting the similarity of this incident to the four-year-old incident in Khomeini Shahr, he threatened media outlets that, according to him, create "an atmosphere of insecurity" in society by "publishing false news for adventurous motives" with "legal action."