Political activist Ebrahim Mahtari, who fled Iran after he had been detained for protesting the presidential election result, was attacked in Paris by two unidentified assailants.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that Mahtari was beaten and stabbed several times. It quotes Mahtari saying his attackers had put a rope around his neck, but an unrelated police siren made them run away.
Mehtari suffered stab wounds to his legs, arms and neck and was transferred to hospital for immediate care.
Mahtari was arrested during the government clampdown on protesters following the 2009 presidential elections.
He was subjected to torture while in prison, and his testimony about his ordeal was included in the complaint that Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi filed about the torture of detainees in Iranian prisons.
Following the 2009 presidential elections, Karroubi announced that prisoners were subjected to torture and sexual abuse in the Islamic Republic prisons; he demanded that the perpetrators be put on trial.
Iranian authorities rejected the allegations, arrested the opposition’s investigators and tried to prosecute the witnesses. Mahtari spoke of the torture he had endured at the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.
Yesterday 49 member countries of the UN Human Rights Council supported the resolution to criticize the state of human rights in Iran. The resolution will be put to vote next week.
