LONDON (AFP) Human rights violations in Iran are as bad as at any time in 20 years, London-based watchdog Amnesty International said on Thursday in a report on a government crackdown against election protests.

A prominent Islamic scholar and Iranian dissident said on Friday the United States was missing an opportunity by negotiating with Iran solely over its nuclear capability and not the country's nascent democracy movement. Mohsen Kadivar, once an active participant in Iran's Islamic revolution who has become a critic of its theocracy, told students at Chicago's DePaul University he was pessimistic about U.S.-Iranian relations but suggested patience with President Barack Obama's 10-month-old administration.

The mission of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran is to gather support for Iranian human rights activists and defenders who are advocating for their civil, political, social, and economic rights within the framework of international treaties and standards that define Iran s obligations.

On May 3rd, prison authorities in Gohar Dasht brutally attacked political prisoners including those affiliated to the People s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), beating and abusing them. Ali Reza Karami (a prisoner on death row), Afshin Baymani and Behrouz Javid-Tehrani were transferred to solitary confinements after being badly beaten by the special prison guards.

This is about systematic torture in Iran. Mental torture with horrible savage events like stoning, mass executions and so on while we are not being detained; and physical and mental torture while we are in detention.