Iranian activist says he was sexually abused during protest arrest

An Iranian political activist has accused security forces of sexual and verbal abuse when he was arrested in Tehran on Monday.

Writing on X, Hossein Ronaghi detailed his allegations. "Inside the vehicle, they restrained both of my hands. The driver kept repeating vulgar insults about my mother. The one seated on my left grabbed my left hand and forcibly placed it on his groin, demanding that I touch him," he said.

He accused multiple officers of having inflicted verbal and physical abuse. "The officer on my left slid his hand under my shirt and commented to the one on his right, 'he's so pale, I want him to be my bride tonight in detention.' The other added, 'I'll take his mother in front of his eyes,'" he wrote on X.

Ronaghi, a 37-year-old blogger and dissident, had staged a sit-in protest to demand justice for fellow activist Kianoush Sanjari, who is said to have committed suicide last week in protest against government oppression.

The journalist and activist had warned in a social media post that he would end his life unless several political prisoners, including Fatemeh Sepehri and Toomaj Salehi, were released.

Ronaghi used X to highlight problems faced by dissidents under the Islamic Republic's legal system, issues highlighted by international rights groups such as Amnesty International which has accused Iran of forced confessions among other practices such as torture.

"These are the same people who use such methods to extract confessions from people in Ekbatan," he wrote, referring to a neighborhood in western Tehran where security forces have been accused of coercing protesters into false admissions.

Last week, Iran's judiciary issued death sentences for six individuals living in Ekbatan accused of involvement in the killing of a Basij militia member during the nationwide protests that erupted in 2022.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly documented the systematic use of sexual violence in Iran’s prisons. Amnesty International reported in March 2023 that detained protesters, including children, were subjected to rape, groping, and electric shocks to the genitals. The organization highlighted these methods as tools to punish and extract confessions from detainees.

Ronaghi has been arrested multiple times since 2009 and has long written of torture in custody. Released on bail in November 2023 after a prolonged hunger strike, he has faced ongoing harassment from authorities.

He lost a kidney during a previous incarceration and continues to suffer from severe health complications. He has currently sewn his lips together in protest in a bid to raise awareness to the case of Sanjari.