
Ali Hemmatian
AKA: Raouf
- Interrogator at the IRGC Sarallah HQ (At least 2014- Now)
- Human Rights Violation: Interrogation, torture and attempts to obtain forced confessions from political prisoners (At least 2014- Now) read more
- Institution
- Sar-Allah HQ
- Location
- Tehran
- Rights Violated
- Right to freedom from torture, Right to freedom of expression
- Description
Ali Hemmatian, alias Raouf, has played a direct role as an interrogator of the Revolutionary Guards' Sar-allah Headquarters in interrogating, torturing, and obtaining forced confessions from political prisoners. The IRGC intelligence interrogator and torturer was first identified when a picture of him in the front row of a meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was published by the former political prisoner, Mahdieh Golroo in 8 December 2020, and then the HRANA Human Rights News Agency published a report on the testimonies of the interrogator's victims. According to the report, Ali Hemmatian was involved in the interrogation and torture of many political prisoners, including Arash Sadeghi, Mahdieh Golroo, Golrokh Eraie, and Atena Daemi. According to witnesses, he tortured and interrogated detainees in IRGC secret intelligence detention centres, including one in Saboonchi Street next to the Ouj Institute, another safe house in Afsaria, and the well-known Ward 2A Detention Centre.
A former political prisoner who spent six months in ward 2a told HRANA, referring to the role of his colleagues in obtaining forced confessions on television:
"After several days of constant beatings, insults and humiliation during interrogation, I was taken to a room for TV confession. Raouf wrote the texts and handed them over to the IRIB crew. In all the stages of filming and extracting confessions carried out by two teams from Ofogh TV and the IRIB 20:30 news program, Raouf was the main director of the project."
- Sources
Video identification of "Raouf", IRGC intelligence interrogator, HRANA news agency, December 10, 2016
https://www.hra-news.org/2020/hranews/a-27806/
The face of the Revolutionary Guards interrogator was revealed on Twitter; Narratives of Victims of Torture, Iran International, December 10, 2016
- Back up link
- Human Rights Violation: Interrogation, torture and attempts to obtain forced confessions from political prisoners (At least 2014- Now) read more
On 9 March 2020, the US Treasury Department placed Ali Hemmatian on its human rights sanctions list for his role in widespread human rights abuses. According to this decision, Hemmatian and his immediate family have been banned from entering the United States.