Amnesty International has once again voiced concern about torture and mistreatment of prisoners arrested during mid-November unrest in Iran and has called on concerned people to sign a petition.

In a statement on December 28, the international human rights watchdog calling the arrests “arbitrary” warns that thousands of prisoners are at risk of being tortured.

Amnesty International has been at the forefront of reporting on the bloody crackdown against protesters in Iran, that according to Reuters resulted in the death of 1,500 people mostly deliberately shot by security forces.

“The authorities have arrested thousands of protesters as well as journalists, students and human rights defenders to stop them from speaking out about Iran’s ruthless repression. Children as young as 15 have been arrested and detained alongside adults in prisons notorious for torture. Detainees have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment; they have been beaten, punched, kicked and flogged by security forces. Many are being denied access to their families and lawyers” Amnesty says in its statement.

The statement is accompanied by a petition calling on Iran’s head of judiciary “to protect detainees from torture and other ill-treatment, immediately and unconditionally release all those detained arbitrarily, and ensure that UN experts are given immediate access to detention centers and prisons and to families of those killed and arrested in order to conduct fact-finding investigations.”

Iran has so far refused to issue a death toll or announce the number and names of those arrested. Radio Farda estimates 8,600 people have been detained since November 15.