{"id":13989,"date":"2019-12-03T18:59:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/?p=13989"},"modified":"2019-12-03T22:05:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T21:05:13","slug":"forced-confession-a-failed-tactic-for-irans-mullahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/articles\/2019\/12\/forced-confession-a-failed-tactic-for-irans-mullahs\/13989\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced confession, a failed tactic for Iran\u2019s mullahs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Forced confession, a failed tactic for Iran\u2019s mullahs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Daniel Mahdavi<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Iranian mullahs, forcible confessions have\nbecome commonplace. In the first place, they\nignore the basic rights of the people and bring them in front of the camera to\nconfess to what they have not done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forced confessions broadcasts in Iran have been carried out by the mullahs for years for domestic uses. One of the methods used by the mullahs in prison since Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979 was televised confessions or forced confessions. They executed hundreds of MEK members<\/a> who refused to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But forced confession in Iran over the past decade has not been for domestic consumption alone. It has become a way to cover up the crimes of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards. The mullahs also use it to cover up their crimes against the people or to lay the blame for their terrorist activities on other people or to blackmail other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 750 people were killed in recent\ndemonstrations in November, with 10,000 wounded and more than 4,000 injured.\nTwo days after Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the regime\ncame to the scene and called the people \u201cthugs,\u201d the mullahs\u2019 television\nchannels began documenting and broadcasting forced confessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first forced confession report, the mullahs\u2019 television in the news section of 20:30 brought a woman named Fateme Dadvand<\/a> to television and claimed that she got orders from groups outside the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fateme Dadvand <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the mullahs\u2019 television did not broadcast much of her interview, and her only sentence was that she had gone to Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, and that someone had asked her to work for his organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A juvenile\u2019s confession was also broadcast on the Yazd Provincial channel, in a scenario that was similar to that of Fateme Davand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most interesting part of those confessions was that of the parents of 14-year-old Nikta Espandani<\/a>, who were forced to say that our daughter was not political and anti-regime. Nikta Espandani was shot in the head by security forces. This only shows the brutality of a regime that kills a 14-year-old girl and then brings her family on TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nikta Espandani <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the protests of 2009 and the arrests of many\ndemonstrators, some of them were forced to confess in front of the camera to\nsay they were affiliated with outside groups and had received orders from them\nincluding a young man who claimed that the Mojahedin had ordered him to make Molotov\nbombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forced confession in Iran not only include those arrested for anti-government protests, but also have different uses for the mullahs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 5, 2012, state-run television showed 14\npeople including 8 men and 6 women in front of the camera, who had to confess\nto being commanded by Israel to assassinate five Iranian nuclear scientists.\nOf course, they were released after two and a half years,\nand all said they had been forced to confess under torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another man, Maziar Ebrahimi<\/a>, was brought on television by the Iranian government to admit he was an Israeli government spy, a crime that, under the mullahs\u2019 law, is punishable by death. But Maziar later stated that he was forced to confess under intense torture and the stories were fabricated by the interrogators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In 1993, the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad was bombed. A few hours later the mullahs blamed the Mojahedin for the attack. In this regard, they brought three young girls to television to say they had been tasked by the MEK for bombing. There is no information on the fate of two of the girls after this confession. Later in the case of former deputy intelligence minister Saeed Emami, it was determined that the bombings were carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence under the Emami\u2019s supervision. Last year, former Iranian regime official Mostafa Tajzadeh explicitly confessed to a television program that bombing had been planned by the Ministry of Intelligence to lay the blame on MEK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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