{"id":6428,"date":"2025-07-23T20:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/?p=6428"},"modified":"2025-07-23T20:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:57:09","slug":"admission-of-mass-and-arbitrary-arrests-during-the-12-day-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/repression\/admission-of-mass-and-arbitrary-arrests-during-the-12-day-war","title":{"rendered":"Admission of Mass and Arbitrary Arrests During the 12-Day War"},"content":{"rendered":"

23 July 2025<\/strong>
\nNews Category: Repression<\/strong><\/p>\n

Breathing in Confinement<\/strong> \u2013 More than 2,000 Iranian citizens were arrested during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.<\/p>\n

According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners\u2019 Rights League in Iran, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje\u2019i stated in an exclusive interview with the state broadcaster IRIB that \u201cduring the 12-day war, the number of detainees reached around 2,000, possibly more. But after investigations and gathering information, many of those individuals\u2014who were neither spies nor enemy agents\u2014were released.\u201d<\/p>\n

These comments by the head of the judiciary and enforcer of the law in Iran are deeply problematic and amount to an admission of violations of legal and human rights principles. Several key concerns in his statement include:<\/p>\n

1. Presumption of Innocence<\/strong>
\nAccording to Article 37 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
\n“Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a competent court.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Therefore, the arrest of around 2,000 people merely based on suspicion or potential involvement in criminal acts\u2014without clear legal justification\u2014constitutes a violation of the principle of presumption of innocence.<\/p>\n

2. Preventive Arrests Without Legal Justification<\/strong>
\nThe large-scale detention of thousands of people\u2014many of whom, by Eje\u2019i\u2019s own admission, were \u201cneither spies nor enemy agents\u201d\u2014indicates that there was insufficient legal basis for many of the arrests. This contradicts the principles of fair trial, including the right to be promptly informed of the reasons for arrest and immediate access to legal counsel. It also constitutes a clear violation of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party.<\/p>\n

3. Vague and Abused Definitions of \u201cEnemy Agent\u201d<\/strong>
\nTerms like \u201cenemy agent\u201d or \u201cspy\u201d are frequently exploited by Iranian authorities in the absence of precise legal definitions. In many cases, civil activities, peaceful protests, or even criticism of the government have been classified under such terms\u2014directly infringing on freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

4. Treatment of Innocent Individuals<\/strong>
\nWhen the judiciary chief acknowledges that many detainees were \u201cneither spies nor enemy agents,\u201d the key question arises:
\nWere these individuals treated with dignity, given access to legal representation, and held under humane conditions during their detention?<\/p>\n

In similar past incidents, there have been numerous reports of arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment, denial of legal access, and coercion for forced confessions.<\/p>\n

Eje\u2019i\u2019s remarks are alarming from a human rights perspective, as they reflect a widespread pattern of arresting individuals without proven wrongdoing\u2014often without any legal basis. The subsequent release of many of these individuals further confirms the unjustified nature of their initial detention. This repressive approach stands in stark contradiction to the rule of law and respect for human rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 July 2025 News Category: Repression Breathing in Confinement – More than 2,000 Iranian citizens were arrested during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i stated in an exclusive interview with the state broadcaster IRIB that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1004],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-repression"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3yHPi-1FG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6430,"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6428\/revisions\/6430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bciran.org\/wplocationen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}