Human Rights Watch released a report on Friday emphasizing that the nature, and scale of abuses in Iran indicate that attacks on demonstrators and detainees “were ordered and coordinated at the highest levels.”
It asked the Iranian government to investigate the nation’s top security officials.
It said that its research indicates a pattern and degree of coordination in the repeated serious abuses against largely peaceful protesters and detainees that suggests that the abuse was ordered at top levels. “Those investigated should include Esameel Ahmadi Moghaddam, chief of Iran’s national police, and Hossein Taeb, leader of the Basiji paramilitary, both hierarchical organizations that operate from the top down,” the report said.
“The number and scale of the abuses by both the police and Basij make it pretty clear that they must have been following orders,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Investigation into the abuse needs to go right to the top to find out who gave the orders.”