A 27-year-old man was killed under torture in Khorramabad Central Prison, western Iran, his family told a human rights organization. According to the Hengaw Organization, Farhad Vosuqi, married and father to a three month old boy, was tortured and killed on November 10.
Farhad’s brother confirmed the report, saying he witnessed the torture marks on his brother’s body in forensics. Farhad lived in the city of Nourabad in Lorestan Province.
An informed source said Farhad was detained three weeks ago, accused of the murder of a man identified as Hossein Juzi. According to the source, he was kept in solitary confinement in Khorramabad Central prison for the whole duration of his incarceration.
Hossein Juzi, a protester and organizer of the November 2019 nationwide anti-government protests in Nourabad was secretly arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and was subsequently killed, the source added. Farhad and his brother were arrested to “cover the IRGC’s tracks”.
Farhad’s brother, Mostafa, was arrested three months before this, and is currently in prison.
Another human rights website said Farhad Vosuqi was tortured to confess to the murder.
Farhad’s body was handed over to his family yesterday. According to the report, after the news of Farhad’s death, a riot broke out in prison, and inmates were beaten by the security forces.
The Lorestan Prosecutor confirmed Farhad Vosuqi’s death but denied his death under torture. In comments carried by the state-run ILNA News Agency, Daryoush Shahounvand said he died in a fight with other inmates but said investigations were ongoing.
The Iranian regime systematically tortures prisoners as punishment or to extract “confessions” which are later used to incriminate them in court.
According to a Police Criminal Investigation Department employee in Iran, the Islamic Republic’s laws consider confessions to be the most important evidence for proving a person’s guilt.
“Confession is the highest court-friendly evidence. When there is a confession, they do not cite any other evidence,” he said in a September 22 report.
