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Iranian Man Tortured for Four Years in Prison Escapes to Turkey

September 9, 2021
Hiva Molania
3 min read
Sohrab Sharifi was arrested by Islamic Republic police in the spring of 2017, and for four months his family did not know whether he was alive or dead.
Sohrab Sharifi was arrested by Islamic Republic police in the spring of 2017, and for four months his family did not know whether he was alive or dead.
Sohrab was arrested, detained and tortured after trying to sell a hunting rifle as a street peddler.
Sohrab was arrested, detained and tortured after trying to sell a hunting rifle as a street peddler.
Sohrab was near Yazd when police apprehended him by firing a warning gunshot.
Sohrab was near Yazd when police apprehended him by firing a warning gunshot.

Sohrab Sharifi was arrested by Iranian police in the spring of 2017, and for four months his family did not know whether he was alive or dead. He was 24 years old. Sohrab had previously been a student at the University of Physical Education but because he was unable to afford the course fees, he had to drop out. He then worked as a street peddler to support his family.

While he was working as a peddler, someone offered Sohrab money to procure a hunting rifle. Sohrab says extreme poverty pushed him to accept the job. But he also thought trafficking in hunting weapons would not warrant a severe punishment if he was caught. He was near Yazd when police stopped him by firing a warning shot. It marked the beginning of a nightmarish ordeal that would see him brutally tortured in prison, sew his own mouth shut with needles and finally embark on a desperate escape to Turkey.

Now residing in that country, Sohrab is one of countless Iranians subjected to mindless violence by Iranian prison officials on a baseless pretext. Speaking to IranWire, he remembers: “They wanted to force me to confess I’d committed four murders with that weapon. But it hadn’t been used at all. They hanged me by my hands for hours. I still have the scars. My arms were tied behind my back in iron handcuffs and my shoulder broke and they had to take me to the hospital."

Sohrab says it was Ab-e Hayat Prison in Yazd where the torture took place: "There was a faucet above my head and water was dripping on my head and forehead. It felt as if my head was exploding. They whipped my waist and the soles of my feet. Then they forced me to apply ice to them so that they wouldn’t turn blue."

After being held there and tortured for some time, he was transferred to another prison and managed to escape on the journey to the inattention of the guards. But just two and a half months later he was re-apprehended by the Revolutionary Guards in Kashan, and brought back to Yazd, where the brutality continued. “The prison officers were angry about my escape,” he says, “and so they tortured me more severely than before."

A court finally sentenced Sohrab to six years in prison for "transporting a hunting weapon.” Iranian law stipulates that after one third of a given sentence has been served, the convict can apply for furlough. But four years later, Sohran hadn’t tasted freedom for so much as a day. “The authorities didn’t agree to my release,” he says. “One of the prison officials told me that if I memorized two verses of the Quran, they would help me. I did what they said, but my requests were still ignored."

Sohrab says illicit substances were also widely distributed in prison – in full coordination with the prison guards – partly in a bid to "neutralize" the prisoners. He also used drugs for a time. He went on several hunger strikes in protest against his situation, even sewing his mouth shut with needles, and was finally granted ten days of leave on a bail of 7 million tomans.

As soon as he got out, Sobrab fled Iran and made his way to Turkey, where he has now been for a few weeks while trying to claim asylum. Though he carries many scars, both of mind and body and of mind, and may never see his family again, Sohrab says exile is better than another day in Iran’s medieval prison system.

This article was written by a citizen journalist under a pseudonym.

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