Amil Imani: Will Iranians around the world hear Ali's story --
and do nothing
ALI WAS A STUDENT at the
Ali was one of the protesters who was
captured and sent to the notorious Evin prison, in
The Islamic Republic, which uses
techniques similar to Stalin's forced confessions, has resorted to such
"confessions" to pave the way for prosecuting political activists in
Arrests usually occur at night.
Individuals later find themselves held in "detention" for days,
weeks, months, even years, without any formal charges. By obtaining
self-incriminating confessions, the Islamic Republic is focusing on destroying
individuals' reputations, dignity and honor.
The Intelligence Ministry of the Islamic
Republic has often arrested and persecuted people not necessarily for what they
did, but for who they were and what they were capable of doing. The ministry's
targets have been groups whose members who are well known or fluent in foreign
languages, educators, writers, intellectuals and, of course, journalists.
I ran into Ali not long ago and asked him
if I could briefly expose his story to the world. He agreed on the basis of
anonymity, because he still has relatives in
He recalled how he had been interrogated
and spent most of his time in solitary confinement for crimes of "waging
war against Allah," ultimately punishable by death. According to the words
of the merciful and compassionate God of the Koran, "The punishment for
those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet and make mischief in the land
is to murder them, crucify them, or cut off a hand and foot on opposite sides.
. . . [T]heir doom is dreadful. They will not escape the fire, suffering
constantly" (5:33).
Ali gives us just a glimpse of the
prison-punishment schemes, harassment and intimidation of Iranian youth by the
Islamic Republic lackeys. He says that the Islamic Republic is dreaming of
world domination through Islamic wars, and for this it needs the brutalization
of the Iranian people to bring them to the will of Allah. For the Islamic
Republic, brutality, violence and terror are necessary tools.
In prison, Ali was held in solitary
confinement in a tiny cell, too small to lie down in. He was thus confined for
months.
Others faced a more terrible lot. They
were subjected to inhuman tortures. Beatings were common. Some prisoners even
went insane.
Ali paused for a moment, and I saw that
his eyes were filled with tears. He sighed deeply and asked, "Where were
the human-rights and humanitarian groups during that time?"
He told me that there were four
revolutionary guards who took turns beating him up for no reason, frequently in
the middle of the night.
"They would strip off all my clothing, take me into a small room, and put me on my
knees with my head down," Ali said softly. "A bearded heavy man
pushed the edge of his knife down against the back of my neck. He told me he
would slit my throat if I didn't confess, that I was
part of a dissident organization."
Ali continued: "Suddenly, you hear
nothing except silence. There were no more questions, only silence and the
weight of a knife at the base of my neck. One wonders how these people live
with themselves. Do they have children of their own? How would they like their
kids to be treated like animals?"
He started mumbling as though there were
not enough time in his life to express his story. This is the story of
thousands upon thousands of innocent young and old Iranians, forced to waste
their precious time in the Islamic Republic prisons simply for wanting a better
life for themselves and their countrymen. To the Islamic Republic, this is
called waging war against Allah.
Some prisoners,
said Ali, "would sit in solitary confinements, starving and rotting. Many
die, due to the heavy beating, and the officials remove their bodies quickly in
the middle of the night to an unknown area."
"My cell was very small and
impenetrable. The walls were made of heavy cement. No windows. The doors were
made of thick metal and very strong. On the ceiling, there were two ventilation
holes, from which you could hear the screams of others, repenting and begging
the torturers to stop beating them up.
"The methods of tortures ranged from
mechanical devices designed to inflict gross tissue damage to psychological and
physiological techniques, such as solitary confinement and sleep
deprivation."
Ali had a lot more to say -- a lot more
than a man can bear to hear. Ali and others like him are prisoners of
conscience. They believe in freedom and justice. These principles are forbidden
in the Muslim countries.
Iranians must learn that history does not
repeat itself; we repeat history! What is sad is that the world community and,
in the case of Ali, Iranian communities do not do enough to expose the Islamic
Republic's war against humanity.
Unfortunately, most Iranians in the West
are more interested in making money than in helping people such as Ali. Iranian
communities have become extremely nonchalant. Thus, they have become
pseudo-Iranians -- merely spectators.
Amil Imani, a native of