Video Recording, Rajaeeshahr Prison in Karaj, May 2009
Human Rights Activists in Iran (www.hra-iran.org, www.hra-news.org)
A inmate in the notorious Rajaeeshahr prison tells of the torture he was submitted to during his stay while still in prison.
You can watch the video in Farsi at this link. Below is a translation of what he said.
My name is Bahram, son of Mohammad.
I begged Mr. Akharian to let me speak to my family.
He replied, “I’ll call your family myself.”
He got my number and on the phone said to my family, “Bahram’s dead. Come and pick up his body.”
When my mom heard him say that, she had a heart attack. I later found out that she went to the hospital after she heard the news.
I still wanted to talk with my family, and they didn’t let me. For a week I insisted to speak with my family. I was very upset. They stopped my medications, even though I [had been under] medical supervision, and no matter how much I pleaded they wouldn’t let me. They intensified [their actions], and I got so upset that I wanted to light myself on fire. They came in to turn off the fire, and they hit me with a piece of wood. I couldn’t see much….I was breathless, and Mr. MirAghaei, Mr. Zaynali, Mr. Yousefi, and Mr. Mani all came. Mr. Mani had a knife in his hand. Maybe he wanted to stab me with it, I don’t know, but I smacked his hand so hard that the knife fell. I defended myself. When I couldn’t continue they brought me to a dark room without a surveillance camera, and there they hit me, tied me, tortured me, and blindfolded me. They propped my legs up and lashed them.
“Isn’t there a God? Isn’t there a Prophet?” I pleaded.
They replied, “We are God and the Prophet.”
I asked, “Who’s responsible for this place? The interrogations? ”
Mr. Miraghaei replied, “It’s all us. Mr. Akharian authorized me to do this.”
They broke my leg. Afterwards, they brought me naked to another room. I stayed in it with hands tied until morning, and I couldn’t breathe. My leg was all broken and bloody. They didn’t take me to a doctor for one month, but when it became worse they were forced to take me to the clinic. My leg was infected, and the infection had penetrated into the bone. The doctor said that he couldn’t do anything to my leg. I begged the doctor to do something, but he said that if he wanted to operate on my leg I needed to stay in bed. The clinic couldn’t keep me because Mr. Akharian issued orders against it. Mr. Gerami and Mr. Alimohammadi also said that Mr. Akharian ordered them not to let me stay. I threatened to report them, and at this they let me stay to operate on me. My name was at the clinic, and I was in solitary confinement for four days before operation.
Mr. Miraghaei came and sneered, “Oh dear, does your poor leg hurt? We’ll make it worse! Why did you go complain to the clinic?”
When they brought me for the operation they gave me some medication, [the muscles around] my mouth became distorted, numb, and I couldn’t talk. They said, “That day when you got in a tough situation with them, we should have thought of doing this to you. Now they told us to do this to you. Now you have no right to move, talk, or anybody. We must kill you, just like we injected everybody else and killed them.”
When they operated me, they scraped the bone, infected it, cut off some of my flesh, and twisted my leg.
They brought me to Mr. Akharian who said, “I am involved in intelligence. I’ll bring your family here. Why did you complain? If you cooperate, I’ll help you, but if you don’t, I’ll kill you.” Again they brought me to him, and insisted that I cooperate or else I’d get killed. International human rights is worthless, the Islamic Republic can do whatever it wants in the interrogations.
The Islamic Republic doesn’t exist, religion doesn’t exist, and Islam doesn’t exist. They kill people, just like drinking water. They’ve done worse things to other people. There are many who object too. If anyone complains, they torture him even more. They throw him into a dark room with no surveillance camera, and no one knows what’s happening to him. They provide no water, no bread, and no toilet. There’s no Islam, no law, there’s nothing. They kill people, just like drinking water. Help me!