Deutsche Welle – January 27, 2016 – American-Iranian pastor, Saeed Abedini held in detention for four and half years in Iran and recently released and returned to the U.S. after a prison swap between Washington and Tehran, has said he was placed under torture and in solitary confinement after refusing to sign forged allegations raised him.
Abedini said in a FOX TV interview aired on Monday, January 25th that during his stay in Evin Prison the interrogators had beaten him, placed him in a cell along with a prisoner affiliated to al-Qaeda who had tried to kill him, and he had witnessed moments where people were screaming while being taken from their cells to the gallows for execution, Reuters reported.
During the interrogation they once beat me very severely because they wanted me to admit to actions that I had not committed, he said in one part of the interview. In the court the judge closed the door and the interrogators began beating me, which resulted in internal bleeding in my bladder, Abedi added.
The worse thing I saw in prison was when Sunni prisoners were being taken for execution, he added. Most of them were Sunni and some of them were political prisoners and I can say that most of them were executed for their religious beliefs and their religion, Abedini continued.
The main charges raised against Abedini were “downgrading national security through promoting Christianity”. He was first sentenced to death, which was then lowered to 8 years behind bars.