Torture In Evin – Letter To Khamenei By Former Political Prisoner Rohollah Zam

In response to the request from former political prisoner and documentary film maker Mohamad Nouri for a letter writing campaign to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Rohollah Zam has written several letters to Khamenei.

In his last letter to Khamenei, former political prisoner Rohollah Zam talks about the illegal and inhuman methods that are used by interrogators for obtaining forced false confessions from prisoners. He talks about his time in prison and the tortures he received and that others were subjected to.

He starts his letter to Ayatollah Khamenei by saying that he could have been like many of the people that are around Khamenei that flatter and bow to him, so he, also could have benefited from the shadow of Khamenei’s Monarchism that has been cast over Iran.

He says, however, since he could not resort to such actions and could only speak the truth, he had to flee the country to stay safe from the hands of Khamenei’s forces.

He goes on telling Khamenei about how the regime-supported media in the past two years have continued to say the Green Movement is dead, but as soon as a protest is called by the Greens, the regime shows its fear of the Greens by making the streets a military zone and occupying the streets with the regime’s mighty security forces, armed to the teeth.

Zam continues in his letter with criticizing Khamenei’s continued failed policies and talks about his continued suppression of the people and continued violating of the Constitution.

Further he talks about the torture that goes on in Khamenei’s prisons, and tells him that he intends to tell about the torture methods used in Evin’s IRGC ward to obtain false confessions from prisoners.

He continues, “I, among many other people were arrested after your Friday Prayer speech in 2009 and were taken to IRGC’s Ward 2-A in Evin prison.

I was arrested on Piroozi street in Tehran after I showed up for a scheduled meeting time that was set via a phone call. The arrest included the agents pulling their guns on me. This method of arrest was also used on Behzad Nabavi and many others.

During my transport to Evin, even though I was handcuffed and blindfolded, I was beaten and insulted with profanities.

For months I was kept in a solitary confinement where I could only see the damp floor of the basement from under my blindfold.

I was handcuffed to a metal post on the floor in a bent position for hours, the interrogators trying to force me give them a false confession against Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, Gholamhossein Karbaschi(Reformist), Sayed Mohamad Khatami(former president) and Mehdi Karoubi(Opposition leader).

I spent many days during summer of 2009 in your IRGC’s 1.5 meter solitary cell while I was fasting. At night time I could hear other prisoners’ prayers thru the air conditioning vents.

My chief interrogator was a man with an Esfahani accent. He had five other interrogators working under him that were responsible for interrogations of the political prisoners. I will reveal his name later on.

This person was responsible for obtaining many of the false confessions that were given by prisoners who were tried in the “Show Trials” of 2009.

I was put under a lot of pressure by him to force me to give a false confession against two prominent politicians.

Being interrogated in those rooms involved a lot of anxiety and stress so the time went by very slowly.
Many days I was interrogated from 12 noon to 12 midnight but it seemed much longer.

Each interrogator was responsible for performing a specific task. One used to beat me very hard. While I was seated on a chair facing the wall and blindfolded. He would beat and kick me from behind so hard that at times I would be thrown off the chair and hit the wall.

Sitting in that position, if I didn’t say what they wanted to hear, they would kick me from behind, throw me to the floor and continue beating and kicking me. This would be repeated many times a day.

The other interrogator was a thin man with a dark complection. His job was to insult me with profanities and verbal abuse.

Another interrogator was responsible for giving me the interrogation sheets to complete and if I didn’t write what they wanted, the other two interrogators would do their job.

One other interrogators, a heavy built man, was responsible for playing with my emotions. He would continuously tell me how much my young daughter missed me. He told me that they heard her say on a wire tap that she cries all the time and says how much she misses her father.

He would tell me, “Just tell us what you must so you can put an end to this and be able to go back to your daughter.”

At the time of my arrest my daughter was only seven and I was her primary care taker in the absence of her mother.

The other interrogator was the one I mentioned earlier in my letter. The same guy who continued to swear upon the purity of Hazart Zahra (Prophet Mohamad’s daughter). The same guy who many times witnessed me being beaten up hard while I was observing fasting.

The same guy who many times witnessed the thin dark complected interrogator throw a Quran at me at his order.

That head interrogator interrogated and insulted many of the political prisoners. The same guy that many political prisoners remember but don’t know his name. Well I have seen him.

On the last day of my detention, they took me to his office and sat me on a chair and removed my blindfold.

I saw his bald head, the imprint of the praying stone on his forehead and his blue eyes. He was no other person than the brother of your Intelligence Minister “Haydar Moslehi”.

He asked me to become friends with Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani as soon as I am released and not to leave his side until such day that he is arrested. In other words he wanted me to spy on Mehdi Hashemi for him.

Many times over they asked me to give a false confession against Mehdi Hashemi. The same false confession that was given by Hamzeh Karami during the show trials.

Also, after I was released, they summoned me three times to Evin and asked me to give a false confession that I had personally seen Gholamhosein Karbaschi (former political prisoner, former Tehran mayor and an ally of former president Khatami) carrying firearms a number of times in various locations.

They intended to use this false confession as evidence to arrest Mr. Karbaschi.

Despite the fact that I was threatened with re-arrest if I refused to give them this false confession, my conscience would not allow me to make such a false accusation and I refused to do so.”

Zam continues in his letter with, “Mr. Khamenei, during my repeated interrogation sessions, many times I heard the cries and moans and groans of other prisoners that were being beaten and attacked.

Once I heard from the room next to my interrogation room that a person was being beaten by five people trying to make him confess to possession of firearms.”

Zam goes on telling khamenei that most of the false confessions were to show that people close to Hashemi Rafsanjai, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi were armed and were planning an armed coup against Khamenei.

The main agenda for these confessions was for people to confess to affiliation with the Mojahedin and the Monarchists and ultimately Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi. Unfortunately some people fell for this agenda.

I know a person who’s name I will not reveal, for he is still imprisoned, who weighed about 145 kilos before being incarcerated.

After I was released, one day I had gone to the Revolutionary Court to follow up on my case, and there I saw the same man, looking very thin and weak.

I asked him, how he was doing and why he had lost so much weight. I asked, what have they done to you?

He said, ” Rohollah if they gave you electric shock to your rectum every day, there wouldn’t have been anything but bones left of you.”

This man was a prominent and trusted person during Shahid Rejaei and Mir Hossein Mousavi’s era. Everyone knew that man, a religious person, considered Khamenei as his spiritual leader. He would get highly offended if anyone said anything negative about Khamenei.

This same man was tortured in your IRGC’s corrupt prison. He lost 80 kilos by being shocked in his rectum daily.

Shame on me, shame on you, shame on us, shame on us all.”

Zam concludes his letter to Khamenei by telling him that he (Khamenei) continues to rule over a corrupt, blood thirsty and criminal government and regime.

He says that he has more to reveal about the crimes committed by Saeed Mortazabi (the then Tehran District Attorney), about the cases of Hengameh Shahidi, Mostafa Tajerzadeh and more, which he will do at a later time.

Zam ends his letter by quoting from Nahjul Balagheh by Imam Ali:

I am very anxious to reach the realm of God, and I earnestly hope and pray for His blessing and favors. But it grieves me to see that this nation is being ruled by unwise and vicious rulers. They grasp the wealth of the nation and drive its people into slavery. They go into a war with righteousness and gather the corrupt people around them. ~Nahjul Balagheh, letter No. 62

Source: Kalameh