BEIRUT — The interrogator politely apologized for grilling the prisoner about her role in the mass protests over Iran’s disputed presidential election.
Then the prisoner was made to sit facing a wall in the courtyard of Iran’s Evin Prison, blindfolded, handcuffed and covered in an all-enveloping chador for four and a half hours under the blazing sun.
“America is our enemy,” the interrogator told her. “Why are you so naive and can’t see this? It’s exploiting the situation here and wants to ransack the country. They don’t have your interest at heart.”
The ordeal of Nazy, a 29-year-old university student who worked for losing candidate Mehdi Karroubi, gives a glimpse of what is happening to detained protesters. She spoke to The Associated Press after her release on the condition that only her first name be used, to protect herself and her family.
Thousands have been arrested since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner amid cries of voting fraud. The opposition claims detainees were savagely raped by their jailers and at least 69 people were killed, including some from beatings in prison.
The account from Nazy could not be independently confirmed.
June 20 was a tense Saturday, the day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the presidential vote would stand and warned opposition leaders to end street protests or be responsible for bloodshed.
“We knew that from that day on anyone who comes into the street may have to pay a high price for it,” said Nazy.
Nazy was on her way to buy a book in Tehran’s downtown Enqelab Street and planned to attend a demonstration that afternoon at 4.
At noon, Nazy had just climbed out of the car in front of the bookshop when a man in a white vest, blue shirt and white sneakers twisted her arm and slapped handcuffs on her. He pushed her forward and ordered her to walk a few yards.
She was escorted into a huge courtyard packed with disciplinary police officers and with vans and jeeps. Nazy saw five or six men beaten as they were led into the detention center.
Nazy was hit a couple of times on her back, led into a basement and interrogated. By 4 p.m. the number of detainees — mostly men picked up at the protest sites — had swelled to more than 100.
Every time they said a word, they were smacked in the head. At one point, the male officer threw six heavy bottles full of water on their heads.
Just before midnight, the first of several interrogations began, each of which lasted hours.
Nazy’s last interrogation took 4 1/2 hours under the sun. All the female prisoners were brought to the courtyard and made to sit facing the wall. Interrogators sat behind them.
Some were very aggressive and kicked and slapped the prisoners. But Nazy’s interrogator was polite.
“This is what happens when there’s a mass sweep. Some are innocent,” he told Nazy. “Why did you have to come into the street that day when you knew the situation was tense?”
Nazy was released on bail at 11:30 the following night, one week after being arrested.
