ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran’s armed forces judiciary has indicted six officers involved in an alleged sexual and physical abuse case in Tabriz on charges of “fostering public distrust” and “intentional physical harm,” semi-official media reported Thursday, following widespread criticism of the incident.

In mid-September, a video circulating on social media showed officers from Iran’s Law Enforcement Command (FARAJA) arresting and sexually and physically abusing an underage individual in East Azerbaijan’s Tabriz, drawing widespread criticism on social media.

In the video, the officers are seen removing the underage citizen’s pants and physically and sexually abusing him while using abusive language and threatening the alleged suspect. The officers are explicitly threatening sexual harassment in the video while forcefully removing the victim's clothes before beating him. 

The judicial organization of the Armed Forces has issued indictments against “six officers, charging them with violating citizens’ rights, fostering public distrust toward the armed forces, and intentionally inflicting bodily harm,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Thursday.

Last week, FARAJA said it had taken “immediate action against the offending officers” and placed them in custody, with an investigation launched into the case amid widespread criticism over the incident.

With tensions rising, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Fars news agency soon released a confession video of the abused individual.

In the video, several alleged witnesses claimed that the underage person had a habit of “stabbing” people in the neighborhood and described him as an alleged criminal. It also claimed that the video was originally from June and was circulated recently.

Iran has a long history of broadcasting alleged confessions from detainees that are widely believed to be coerced, often obtained through threats, psychological pressure, and, in some cases, physical torture, and commonly described as “forced confessions.”

Physical abuse by Iranian police has been widely reported and criticized, with allegations of abuse increasing during periods of heightened tension.

One of the most prominent cases occurred in 2022, when Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died while in Iranian police custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her state-mandated hijab in a lax manner. Amini’s case sparked one of Iran’s largest nationwide uprisings, known as the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom) movement.