Iran authorities practice ‘state hostage-taking,’ rights groups say – JURIST

Worldwide human rights charities Redress and Free Nazanin Wednesday launched a report describing Iranian authorities’ actions, particularly within the midst of the nationwide Mahsa Amini protests, as “state hostage-taking.” The practically 50-page report argues Iran has institutionalized state hostage-taking by way of the apply of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of overseas and twin nationals to acquire diplomatic leverage.

The report relied on testimony from 26 victims of hostage-taking and their relations and open-source info. The report examined Iranian authorities’ state hostage-taking practices throughout 5 phases together with: preliminary detention and interrogation, court docket and judicial processes, torture and ill-treatment in jail, authorities and state media propaganda, and advertising and marketing and finally concluded, “Iran’s state hostage-taking apply breaches worldwide human rights regulation.”

Since 2015, there have been at the least 50 circumstances of state hostage-taking, and because the onset of the Mahsa Amini protests in September, Iranian authorities detained at the least 9 European nationals. One particular instance the report factors to is that of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British nationwide detained by Iranian authorities in April 2016. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was only in the near past launched from arbitrary detention in March with one other British-Iranian hostage when the UK paid a £400 million debt to Iran.

State hostage-taking is ruled by the UN International Convention against the Taking of Hostages in 1979 and the UK Taking of Hostages Act of 1982. State hostage-taking is outlined, beneath these governing devices, because the detaining or seizing of one other particular person with a threaten to kill, injure or proceed to detain them with the intention to compel a state or worldwide actor to do or abstain from some motion.

The report stresses the urgency of the difficulty to the worldwide group, saying, “Iran is a market chief, however others are copying,” together with Russian and China. In consequence, the report requires the worldwide group to acknowledge Iran’s practices as state hostage-taking and to “[m]eaningfully problem Iran’s systematic breaches of worldwide human rights regulation” and maintain Iranian authorities accountable by way of doable sanctions and different authorized avenues.