Iran's top torturer aiding Syrian regime in clampdown

As the dictatorship in Syria steps up efforts to quell to the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic rule, a source inside Ahmadinejad's administration told the Green Voice of Freedom that a security delegation has been offering expertise and assistance to the autocratic regime in Damascus.

Amidst the intensification of repressions against anti-government protesters in Syrian, an informed source inside the Iranian administration has told the Green Voice of Freedom that Deputy Chief of Iran’s National Police, Ahmad-Reza Radan was part of a security delegation that visited the Syrian capital two weeks ago.

“The meeting between Brigadier-General Ahmad Reza Radan Ahmad-Reza Radan, the Deputy Chief of Iran’s Police with Syrian security officials took place two weeks ago, when the crackdown on protesters opposing the rule of Bashar Assad was intensified,” the source told GVF on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

According to the source, this enforces the belief that Iranian security officials, including Radan, have been providing active assistance to the Syrian regime in crushing dissent in the country.

Radan is among the high ranking Iranian officials whose name was implicated in the prisoners abuse scandals at Iran’s notorious Kahrizak detention centre. He was named by a number of abused victims as the police official directly in charge of the detention centre who personally took part in beatings and ill treatment of detainees. Reports of widespread abuse of the detainees at Kahrizak prompted Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to order the closure of the facility in summer 2009.

In recent days, army tanks recently have rolled into the city of Dera’a in southern Syria, shelling residential areas, cutting off electricity and water supplies to the inhabitants.

Amnesty International has called the human rights crisis in the country “a new low,” calling on the “UN Security Council to refer Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to impose an arms embargo and to freeze the assets abroad of the Syrian President and his senior associates.”

More than 500 people have died across Syria since protestors calling for political reform took to the streets in mid-March. “Hundreds of people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained incommunicado, placing them at serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment. Torture of detainees has long been common and endemic in Syria,” said Amnesty.

Foreign media are banned from Syria, making it harder to report accounts of the atrocities occurring in the country, something reminiscent of the Iranian protests in June 2009 following massive vote rigging in Iran’s presidential election.

The European Union recently released the names of 32 Iranian officials, including Ahmad-Reza Radan, who were sanctioned for their role in human rights abuses in the country. The 27-nation bloc imposed visa bans and asset freezes on the individuals ranging from judiciary judges to military, intelligence and police officials.

According to the EU, “As Deputy Chief of National Police since 2008, Radan was responsible for beatings, murder, and arbitrary arrests and detentions against protestors that were committed by the police forces.”

In September 2010, the White House announced new sanctions that for the first time targeted Iranian officials on human rights grounds. Radan and seven other designated Iranian officials have been subject to financial sanctions and visa ineligibilities under US law, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. He added that the “list of names is not exhaustive and will continue to grow based on events in Iran, and as additional information and evidence becomes available.”

Source: GVF