In the name of the Creator
Honorable Head of the Judicial Power
Mr. Ayatollah Shahrudi
Respectfully with Salutations
I, Ali Afshari, was arrested in the month of
December 2000, per the orders of the Judge of the 26th Branch of the
Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal...
The initial charge against me was related to
my talk at a conference officially named "Objections to the (Current)
Political Impasse." given at Amir Kabir University (Tehran) on November
26, 2000. I was charged with "propaganda against the regime,"
"agitating public opinion"[1],
and "insulting the Leader."
After having spent approximately eight days
in the public section of the Evin prison, I was transferred to section 240
(solitary confinement). Then, the security interrogation began. This was not
merely questioning: my interrogators cursed me, insulted me, and used force.
After one week of uninterrupted interrogation
accompanied by sleep deprivation, being forced to stand in front of a wall, and
being threatened with various tortures, I was transferred to a place which the
interrogators called the "dungeon of the ghosts." I was kept
sleepless for 24 hours, was blindfolded and made to lie down in the back seat
of a car wrapped in a blanket. Later I found out that this place is the
Incarceration 59 of the Sentries. The reasons for my transfer were as follows:
1) I denied my interrogators accusation that I had attempted to overthrow the
regime; 2) I did not retract the contents of my aforesaid talk; 3) I did not
apologize to the Leadership and the Head of the Judicial Power; and, 4) I
refused to answer any questions outside of the purview of the stated charges.
During the night of the transfer, I was
subjected to beatings and insults by several people and was forced to answer
questions unrelated to the charges brought against me in violation of my rights
and expressed wishes.
From then on, the intensity of the physical
and psychological pressures, deprivations, lack of affection, and isolation,
was gradually and continually intensified, so that after one month of
resistance I was suddenly broken, my personality was destroyed, and I became
like a child who is placed in an unknown environment. I was detached from my
previous space and was changed to a person with no self-control or will, a
person who is malleable in the hands of the prosecutor. The prosecutor, hence,
was in total control.
In this critical circumstance, like a
psychotic patient, I went through the process of de-socialization and was more
alienated from my previous personality daily.
My situation was such that I was incapable of
disagreement with and resistance against to the prosecutor and I was only
concentrating on mitigating the impact and reducing the extent of the demands
of the prosecutor.
The demand of the prosecutors, at this
period, was first to fabricate their own (imaginary) version regarding national
security files, such as the attack of the students dormitory by security forces
in 1999 (and the students' uprising of the same year), the Khorram Abad
incident (students demonstration in the Province of Lorestan), the actions of
the Office of Fortifying Unity (a reformist student Union) and the student
movement. They were also attempting to force me to confess lies about the
reformers and the opposition. They had
concocted a preconceived scenario and wanted it substantiated by my confession.
I resisted their pressure for 45 days, but could not bear the hardship
anymore. I agreed to submit to an
interview, on the condition that I would not be confessing lies against others
and would not distort facts.
First the investigative magistrate dictated
the script of the interview and I started negotiating with him, and then the
first draft of the interview was prepared with the input of the prosecuting
team. Three video interviews were done in the incarceration area with the
prosecuting team.
The videos were sent to the "expertise
group" and were edited again based on their inputs. A new draft was
prepared based on the interviews and was presented to me for memorization.
After one day of practice, I was transferred to a place inside the Eshrat Abad
Garrison. An interview was supposed to take place with a professional team of
filmmakers. Suddenly, and without any previous notice, I was confronted with
the reporter and the filming crew from state-owned television (Voice and
Image).
The prosecutor's signals indicated I ought
not to show any reaction. Given that I was deprived of the right of "being
myself", a self-evident human right, had lost my independent will, and was
scared of being hurt in order to confess their lies, I had no choice but to
acquiesce.
The process of that so called voluntary
interview, which had supposedly taken place "per my request," is a
sad story. It shows that the forces and
the desires of the megalomaniacs to kill the truth and distort reality know no
boundaries.
First, the prosecutor, in the presence of the
interviewer (from state media) of the Voice and Image, sat on the interviewer's
seat. Then, while looking at the camera of the Voice and Image, I started
reciting without interruption and without any question and answer, from memory,
the contents of the written documents which were brought from the prison.
Of course, I was glancing at the written
document now and again while I was reciting.
The whole interview was filmed in a half an
hour single tape.
The prosecutor claimed that he wants this
film for the prosecuting team and some of the authorities and has nothing to do
with a television interview.
Then, the interviewer from Voice and Image,
Mr. Fallah, sat on the chair and asked some questions within the prepared
framework. I gave answers in line with what the prosecutors wished. The taping took more than one hour in various
videos.
In fact, none of the words I uttered in this
interview were mine; they were the words of the prosecuting team which were spoken
by me because of the heavy pressures brought on me.
This interview was a completely fabricated
film directed by the prosecuting group in which I played the role of the
interviewee. Unfortunately, even though the Judge had clearly announced that
the interview was internal and would not be broadcasted in the media, despite
our agreements, the edited interview in the presence of the prosecutor and the
reporter of Voice and Image was selectively broadcasted.
In this period, they made me sign several letters
of repentance addressed to the Judge, the Head of the Judiciary Power, and the
General Committee of the Office of the Fortifying Unity (student Union). The
contents of these letters, like the interview, were coerced and dictated by the
prosecuting team and none of them reflected my opinion and perspective. They
were reflective of a personality they had fabricated from me during the forced
interrogation. None of the said letters, of course, were published.
Also in this period, there was a lot of pressure
put on me to write and give information about the reformist activists and the
students in the framework of the predispositions and thoughts of the
prosecutors.
At last, with the help of the Creator, while
I was distraught and anxious and had even attempted suicide several times with
an electric wire, in the second half of (June 2000) in those difficult
situations, I found my old self again, the person I was before I was arrested.
I stood up to the plans of the prosecutors and refused to submit to their command.
At my first opportunity, I reported all the violations and fabricated
confessions to the Judge. In my initial meeting with my family, I told them
about what had happened so that the public
would be informed.
The pressures and threats resumed again and I
was threatened with extensive prison time. They (the prosecution team) told me,
among other threats, that I will not have a chance to defend myself in public.
They repeatedly emphasized the Judge and the courts have no role in this case
and that they (the prosecution team) were the main and the final decision
makers.
In the month of July 2000, my bail was
changed to a 200 million Tomans.($200,000) Despite the fact that my family
presented the whole amount of the bail in the form of property deeds and
received a receipt for it in the month of August of the year 2000, I was held
in section 59, in solitary confinement without being told of new charges. In the last three months of that
period, no interrogation took place.
In sum, the salient physical and
psychological abuses during the period of 356 days are as follows:
-328 days of solitary confinement of which
128 days of it was in a cell 2 meters by 1/3 m and 200 days of it
was in a cell of 3m by 6m.
-Incarceration in high ranking secure and
military jails.
-Incarceration in the Intelligence units of
the Ministry of Defense adjacent to the Mehrabad
Airport, where the incessant sound
of the landing and take-off of the airplanes leaves no room for tranquility.
-Being beaten up and slandered while blindfolded
and subjected to vile insults and cursing.
-Repeated long periods of sleep deprivation,
in one case, for a period of four consecutive days.
-Repeated threats for being executed and
setting up mock stages in which preparations for hanging were set up as well as
efforts in forcing me to write my will.
-Being forced to stand facing the wall for
long periods of time.
-Threats to various forms of tortures accompanied with
constant deafening noises, some of which were accompanied with sexual
pressures.
-Threats to arrest the members of my family and friends.
-Deprivation from affection and sensory pleasures and
prevention from free and effective contacts with the family and the attorney.
-No access to books and newspapers for a period of 8
months and no access to T.V., radio, and the reformist papers.
-Being blindfolded during the whole period of
incarceration.
-Being taken to bed for the purposes of being flogged and
its preparation.
-Extensive psychological pressure.
-Being exposed to cold weather, such that during winter
time I was deliberately kept in a cold room.
-Unhygienic environment.
-No access to free telephone conversations and
limitations on the telephone contacts in the presence of the interrogator.
-Deprivation from and limitation on fresh air access
during the first four months of the incarceration. I had access to only five
minutes of fresh air in the small back yard of the prison while blindfolded.
-Being deceived and being told lies about the political
atmosphere and political issues of the country and the student movement.
-Being fed fabricated news and lies quoting friends and
the reformist activists.
-Transfer from one prison to another in an ambulance (and
in some cases on a stretcher).
-Unlimited interrogation in all areas and outside of the
subject of incarceration.
After posting the bail of two hundred
thousand dollars and being released, I attempted to demand my suspended rights
by holding press interviews, writing to high officials, pursuing legal means,
and exposing the issues surrounding the incarceration. Unfortunately, I
received no replies. I was imprisoned for another two years on unsubstantiated
charges. I paid for my steadfastness and my belief in human rights.
Mr. Shahrudi,
What transpired in my case is a perfect
illustration of the violations you have enumerated as those recurrent in the
judicial system. Until such a time that the perpetrators and the agents of
these violations are duly punished for their inhuman and unislamic behavior,
one cannot hope for a genuine reform of the judicial system.
Now, after more than 55 months from the
filing of the case, and 44 months after being released with posting the $200000
bail, Tuesday, August 23, 2005
has been designated as my court date.
With regard to the foregoing, with respect to
the political nature of the charges, the requirement for a fair judicial
process, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, religious principles, and
my own human rights, it is required that per the Article 168 of the
constitution, my trial be public and that I be judged by a jury of my peers.
The way my trial is conducted will be a good
illustration of how authentic and sincere is the authorities' proclaimed desire
to reform the judicial system and respect the rights of the citizens. For this
reason, I strongly insist on having a
public trial based on the due process of law.
"And success is from God"
Ali Afshari
August
15th, 2005
