Kahrizak Physician Commits Suicide

Rooz Online

While the perpetrators of death and torture of detainees at Kahrizak prison have till now escaped justice, news sources close to reformists in Iran revealed yesterday that the physician at the prison had committed suicide. Nowrooz website reported that “Doctor Ramin Pourarzjani who was serving his required military service at Kahrizak detention center as its resident physician, has committed suicide following the events that have been taking place at the center after the revelations of specific incidents there.” The website, which belongs to the Participation Party of Islamic Iran (Hezbe Mosharekat Iran Islami), also reported on the cause of the suicide of this young doctor saying that the reason for this was the efforts of senior officials of the detention center to assign the blame for the deaths at the center onto to the doctor. According to the site, “Ramin Pourarzjani, the 26 year old physician, was accused of making medical mistakes leading to deaths at the facility and had been threatened that his medical practice license would be suspended and he would be spent to prison for five years.”

This suicide takes place after Ismail Ahmadi-Moghadam, Iran’s police chief had said, regarding the violation that had taken place at the prison, “An officer responsible for the security and supervision tasked with reporting the violations had been removed from his post along with head of the prison, and both had been arrested.” Furthermore, representative Farhad Tajari, a member of Majlis’ special committee set up to investigate the condition of detainees of post-election issues had denied the release of some detained prison officials in October this year had said that there were eight individuals who had been arrested in the case, adding, “These eight individuals continue to be under arrest.” Following the crackdown and massive arrest of individuals protesting the official results of the June 12 presidential elections, a large number of the detainees had been sent to the illegal Kahrizak prison where at least three detainees, Mohsen Ruholamini, Amir Javadifar and Mohammad Kamrani, had died while many more were subjected to the most violent forms of torture. According to Mohammad Kazem Bahrami, the head of the military’s judiciary branch, some “145 individuals had been identified as complainants in the discovery phase of the law suit in this connection.” (Read more...)