Abadan court exonerates security guard who brutalized Bahareh Cheshm Berah
The Iranian Judiciary issued an arrest warrant for a victim of violence against woman.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Abadan, Branch 7, ordered the arrest of a woman who was badly injured after inhumane treatment by a security agent in the Berim District of Abadan late last October.
Simultaneous with the arrest warrant issued for Ms. Bahareh Cheshm Berah, her assailant, Mehdi Kazemi, was exonerated, her lawyer and a journalist from Khuzestan reported.
On October 22, 2020, a video clip circulated in social media of a young woman in Abadan with bloodied face being held on the ground while a security agent for the Oil Company touched and put his foot on her chest. The victim was later identified as Bahareh Cheshm Berah.
The inhumane treatment of this woman provoked widespread outrage among the Iranian public. The video clip revealed an example of oppression of women and the corruption and depravity rampant within the clerical regime.
The person behind the harrowing incident was Jahan-Nejadian, a high-ranking manager of Abadan Oil Refinery and an operative of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Security Force of the Berim District in Abadan also cooperated with him and brutalized the young woman. (The state-run Mardomsalari daily – October 23, 2020)
The charges leveled against Bahareh Cheshm Berah include forcible entrance (into a private property), beating and arson. Babak Paknia, her lawyer, objected to the arrest warrant and tweeted: “Does the judge who issues his verdicts on the basis of a clip, believe in understanding the evidence? Isn’t it necessary for understanding the evidence to air the footage in the presence of lawyers and the accused? Did he learn anything in law school about understanding the evidence?”