Rouhani's Order to Investigate 'Allegations of Violence Against' Bakhtiari; Judicial Delegation's Visit to Khuzestan

A senior official from the Iranian Attorney General's office announced the formation of a special expert committee to investigate the issue of 'torture' of Ismail Bakhtiari, a representative of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company workers. Meanwhile, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani stated that the President has ordered the investigation into this matter. The formation of the judicial expert committee comes as a member of parliament claims that the Ministry of Intelligence has denied the torture of this labor activist. After Mr. Bakhtiari detailed the 'tortures' during his detention and called for a public accountability of the Minister of Intelligence in a televised debate, Sadegh Larijani, the head of Iran's judiciary, instructed the Attorney General to form an independent committee to investigate this matter and publish its findings. Mr. Larijani called for this committee to be sent to Khuzestan and stated that torture is 'prohibited both religiously and legally' in the Islamic Republic, without mentioning Mr. Bakhtiari's name, he referred to 'possible misconduct by interrogators' in their treatment of protesting workers from Haft Tappeh and possibly Mr. Bakhtiari. One day after this order was issued, the official website of the judiciary, Mizan, quoted the head of the Attorney General's office stating that, following the order of the head of the judiciary, 'a special expert committee has been appointed by the Attorney General.' According to Ali Akbar Bakhtiari, the members of this committee will be present in Khuzestan on Tuesday, January 8, to address the issue. He did not mention the identity or expertise of the members of this 'expert' team. In this context, another report indicates that Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, has also ordered an investigation into the issue of 'torture' of Ismail Bakhtiari. Hossein Dehghan, an advisor to Mr. Rouhani, wrote on his Telegram channel that 'with the explicit order of the President, the investigation into the allegations of violence against the detained individual will be conducted swiftly and accurately.' Ismail Bakhtiari, a representative of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company workers, wrote in part of his letter about the 'tortures' during his detention that agents of the Ministry of Intelligence 'beat' him and Ms. Sepideh Ghalean, who was arrested with him, and subjected them to 'various kinds of vulgar sexual insults,' and that their family conversations were also 'monitored.' The statements of this labor activist received widespread attention on social media and Persian-language media, to the extent that the review of these statements was also placed on the agenda of the National Security Commission of the Parliament. Hoshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of this commission, stated that on Tuesday of this week, 'in a meeting with relevant officials, issues related to the Haft Tappeh workers and the allegations of Ismail Bakhtiari will be discussed.' However, Mr. Falahatpisheh later announced that due to the 'denial' of this issue by the Ministry of Intelligence, the investigation into this matter has been removed from the agenda of the National Security Commission of the Parliament. He said, 'In a call I had with the officials of the Ministry of Intelligence, the officials of this ministry denied the news of the torture of Ismail Bakhtiari.' This representative, without mentioning the details of his call, added that 'we have conducted our follow-ups transparently, therefore there is no longer any follow-up on the agenda of the National Security Commission.' Falahatpisheh also considered the request for the investigation of the issue of 'torture' of Mr. Bakhtiari in this commission by a group of parliamentarians to be 'verbal' and stated that 'if the representatives insist on investigating this issue, they must submit their request in writing.' It has also been previously announced that the Judiciary Commission of the Parliament has requested an investigation into this matter, but the head of the National Security Commission stated that 'the Judiciary Commission also has no responsibility regarding the investigation of this issue.' The investigation into the issue of 'torture' of Ismail Bakhtiari has been removed from the agenda of the National Security Commission of the Parliament while Farzaneh Zeylabi, Bakhtiari's defense lawyer, had previously stated that her client has been 'pressured' to deny his statements. Ms. Zeylabi added that her client is under pressure from 'various individuals' to deny his statements, but did not name these entities. The 'Independent Channel of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers' also reported that Ismail Bakhtiari and his family members are 'under constant and severe pressure from security forces' to deny Bakhtiari's torture. Over the past 40 years, numerous reports of torture of prisoners in the prisons or detention centers of the Islamic Republic have been published, and according to some human rights defenders, torture in Iranian prisons is a common practice. In some of these cases, government officials initially denied the existence of torture of prisoners and later confirmed it, attempting to introduce one or more agents as 'violators' or 'rogue.'