Amnesty International warns that thousands of people arbitrarily detained following a post-protest crackdown in Iran face the risk of torture.

In a statement published on Monday on human rights violations in Iran, Amnesty International said:

"Iran’s authorities are carrying out a vicious crackdown following the outbreak of nationwide protests on 15 November, arresting thousands of protesters as well as journalists, human rights defenders and students to stop them from speaking out about Iran’s ruthless repression’’.

Amnesty adds that it has carried out interviews with people inside Iran who described how during and following the protests, the Iranian authorities detained those arrested “incommunicado and subjected them to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment’’.

The NGO affirms that at least two people who took part in the recent protests in Iran, have said that they are hiding because they fear for their lives. According to these two witnesses many others are in a similar situation.

A testimony given to Amnesty International by one of these witnesses reads: “I have been in hiding since I was seen and filmed by the security forces at the protests. They beat me with a baton before I escaped. I am now in hiding with a serious leg injury. I am not safe because they have gone to my house to arrest me. My situation right now is no different to being in prison.”

According to Amnesty’s latest figure, at least 304 people were killed and thousands injured during the crackdown against protesters during recent protests in Iran that were sparked by a petrol price hike. Iranian security forces responded to the protests with the use of lethal weapons and undertook a great number of arrests.

The Iranian authorities have yet to provide a final number of the people killed.

Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Research Director at Amnesty International has said: “Harrowing testimony from eyewitnesses suggests that almost immediately after the Iranian authorities massacred hundreds of those participating in nationwide protests, they went on to orchestrate a wide-scale clampdown designed to instil fear and prevent anyone from speaking out about what happened”