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Payam Akhavan, a former UN war crimes prosecutor and cofounder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, says his rights center has been inundated with videos, images, and documents from Iran via encrypted e-mail.

Akhavan tells RFE/RL that the brutal repression of peaceful protesters -- including killings, beatings, torture, and imprisonment -- resembles a widespread pattern of systematic human rights abuses that can be defined as "crimes against humanity" under international law.

He said that if there is enough evidence, officials who are in charge of the ministries and bodies that are behind the killings can be legally held responsible according to international law.