Since the post violence election in Iran, there has been widespread arrest and detainment of protesters, political activists, opposition reformists and foreign journalists. Last week, a Newsweek reported confessed to manipulation of facts on the behest of foreign governments. Now, in a shocking statement released by Iranian government, authorities have stated that, some of the top reformists in Iran have indeed confessed to plot against he Iranian government, in which they planned to topple the existing government with a “velvet” revolution.

However, many human rights activists have refuted this statement, stating that such statements have been taken under coerced environment and it is a trick that the Iranian authorities are playing to distract the international community’s attention from the growing unrest in Iran, since the alleged botched election results.

The statement has been released on Iranian Web sites that are largely in control of the conservative regime of Iran. According to Mojtaba Zolnour, representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Revolutionary Guards, all those detained in the post election violence have confessed, and that, more confessions could be made public in the coming days.

According to some Human Rights organizations,

“The government has made it a practice to publicize confessions from political prisoners held without charge or legal representation, often subjected to pressure tactics like sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and torture, according to human rights groups and former political prisoners.”

These organizations have also stated that, by estimates, hundreds of protesters have been detained.

Omid Memarian, a journalist who was arrested and forced to give a wrong confession in the year 2004 by Iranian authorities said,

“If they talk about the velvet revolution 24 hours a day people don’t care. But if reformers and journalists say they are involved in it, it makes the point for them. Once my interrogators said, ‘Whatever you say is worth 100 times more than having a conservative newspaper say the same thing.’”

Via New York Times.