Mohammad-Hossein Zibaenejad (known as Hossein Nejat)
Hossein Nejat is a senior member of the Revolutionary Guards who has been a member of the security forces since its creation. As the former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Sarallah base in Tehran, as well as the former successor to Hossein Taeeb, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp’s (IRGC) intelligence service, he has been involved in and responsible for human rights violations committed by this organization.
Religious minorities
Hossein Nejat, as the deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence service, has participated in and is responsible for the organization’s actions against religious minorities.
The Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence service has detained and pressured Baha’i citizens on numerous occasions.
In August 2017, several Christian citizens were arrested by the IRGC intelligence service in Tehran, Shahr-e-Rey, and Pardis on charges of propagating Christianity and disturbing public opinion.
In October 2017, the IRGC intelligence service arrested eight Baha’i citizens living in Kermanshah.
In September 2018, Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents arrested four Baha’i citizens living in Shiraz. Niloufar Hakimi, another Baha’i citizen living in Shiraz, was arrested by IRGC intelligence forces in October of that year and transferred to an unknown location.
Freedom of expression
The IRGC’s intelligence service under the command of Hossein Taeb and Hossein Nejat’s successor in recent years has also widely reported the arrest and detention of journalists and media activists as a result of violations of freedom.
In March 2017, just two months after Hossein Nejat took office, IRGC arrested a number of journalists, Telegram activists, and media peraonela including Hengameh Shahidi, Morad Saghafi, Tahereh Riahi, and Zeinab Karimian.
Nicholas Pelham, a former correspondent for Newsweek in Tehran, has revealed that he was arrested and interrogated by IRGC intelligence agents in the summer of 2018 in Iran.
Torture and prisoners’ rights
The IRGC’s intelligence service has also tortured and harassed detainees, while Hossein Nejat, has been the organization’s deputy director. So far, there have been numerous reports of all kinds of psychological and physical torture against detainees by the IRGC.
In this regard, Niloufar Bayani, an environmental activist who was arrested by IRGC intelligence in March 2018 on charges of espionage, revealed in February 2020 the details of the torture she suffered during her detention in Ward 2A of the Evin prison dedicated to IRGC and the safe houses of this organization.
According to Niloufar Bayani, during her detention, she was confronted with “imitating the voices of wild animals, threatening to inject paralyzing injections and air injections, and the dirtiest sexual insults.”
Also, in April 2020, the human rights group Atlas of Iranian Prisons published a study on Revolutionary Guards detention centers in Tehran, citing eyewitnesses, documenting torture by IRGC intelligence agents against detainees.
In May 2018, reports of torture against a number of Arab activists and protesters were published in the IRGC’s intelligence detention center in Ahvaz.
In September 2018, Human Rights Activists (HRA) reported the torture of at least seven prisoners in the IRGC’s intelligence detention center in the city of Saravan in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Women
The IRGC’s intelligence service has also been involved in violations of women’s rights and has so far detained or severely pressured many women’s rights activists for arbitrary reasons.
For example, IRGC intelligence agents also arrested two women rights activists, Hoda Amid and Najmeh Vahedi, in September 2018, simply for holding workshops for women and teaching them how to add legally bound conditions that would protect them before signing the marriage contract.
Right to life
Hossein Nejat, as the then commander of the Sarallah Corps in Tehran in July 1999, was directly involved in the attack on the dormitory of the University of Tehran on July 9.
On the evening of July 9, 1999, after a street demonstration of students on Amirabad N. Street, IRGC forces and plainclothes entered the dormitory of the University of Tehran, severely beating students and destroying their property.
At least three students, including Ezatollah Ebrahimnejad, Fereshteh Alizadeh and Saeed Zeinali, were killed during the attack.
Guilds
The IRGC’s intelligence service has also made arrests and detentions of civil, political, student, and judicial activists on numerous occasions while Hosseing Nejat was the deputy director.
For example, In March 2018, the IRGC intelligence unit in Fars province arrested at least five political and civil activists in the city of Estahban.
In September 2018, Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents arrested lawyers Qassem Sholeh Saadi and Arash Kaykhosravi.
In November 2018, Pirooz Nami, secretary of the Khuzestan Teachers’ Union, and Ali Kroshat, a member of its association’s board of directors, were arrested by the IRGC.
In April 2019, the IRGC’s Al-Abbas Intelligence Base in Khuzestan arrested several members of the “Misagh Nasr” Charitable Foundation in Ahvaz while trying to provide relief to the flood-stricken people.
Sexual minorities
The Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence service has also been active in suppressing, detaining, harassing, and violating the rights of sexual minorities and their rights activists.
For example, in September 2018, the IRGC’s intelligence service arrested Rezvaneh Mohammadi, a sexual minority rights activist. She was later sentenced by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to five years in prison on charges of “decriminalization of homosexuality, normalization of illegitimate sodomy, destigmatizing of homosexuals, and acceptance of homosexuality.”
Environment
As the then deputy head of the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence service, Hossein Nejat was directly involved in the arrest of eight environmental activists, the death of one of them in prison, and the trial, harassment, torture, and violation of their human rights.
In February 2018, eight environmental activists, including Kavous Seyedemami, Hooman Jokar, Niloufar Bayani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Sam Rajabi, Taher Ghadirian, Sepideh Kashani, and Morad Tahabaz, were arrested by IRGC intelligence for accusations of “spying and communicating with the enemy”. They were detained before the trial and the verdict.
The arrests were made by IRGC intelligence while, according to the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic, they were not spying and did not commit any crime.
As a result of the detention of these individuals and the application of heavy pressure on them, Kavous Seyedemami died in a very suspicious manner only after two weeks of detention. Judicial officials of the Islamic Republic stated that the cause of his death was suicide.
IRGC intelligence agents also tortured and harassed Niloufar Bayani, the details of which were later released by her.
As a result of IRGC intelligence insistence that these individuals were guilty, and despite opposition from the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic, under the influence of the IRGC, sentenced them to a total of 58 years in prison.
Ethnicities
The Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence service has also been very active in putting pressure on ethnic groups and arresting their rights activists extensively, and Hossein Nejat, as the organization’s deputy head, is responsible.
In July 2018, the Revolutionary Guards Public Relations announced the arrest of a number of Baluch activists in Sistan and Baluchestan province on trumped-up charges, including “spreading lies and anti-unity content and disrupting public order.” At the same time, at least five Kurdish cultural activists were arrested in Kurdistan by IRGC intelligence.
IRGC agents also summoned and arrested a number of Kurdish activists in Kurdistan province in January 2019.
In the winter of 2019, Kurdish Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents extensively summoned and detained Kurdish activists in Kurdistan.
The right to social liberties
Hossein Nejat, as the then commander of the Sarallah Corps in Tehran, was directly involved in the suppression of the right to protest and the right of assembly of many citizens during the university dormitory incident in July 1999 and the socio-political head of the National Security Council Secretariat during the 2009 protests.
With the command of the Sarallah Corps in Tehran, he played an important role in suppressing the student protests in July 1999, especially the attack on the university dormitory on July 9, and the beating of students.
Also, during the 2009 protests, Hossein Nejat, as a member of the National Security Council, played a role in suppressing the protests. In September 2017, he confirmed his role in suppressing the protests and said that he was present on the street in disguise on the Day of Ashura in 2009.
