TWT journalist tells of Iranian captivity

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By Joseph Weber

The freelance reporter who had been held in an Iranian jail while covering the country's presidential election and violent aftermath for The Washington Times said Friday that he was pummeled at Tehran's airport, interrogated while blindfolded and held in a wing of a facility with thousands of anti-government demonstrators.

"A gentleman wearing a uniform said I wouldn't be flying tonight," said Iason Athanasiadis, recalling the first moments of his 18-day detention that began with his arrest at the Tehran airport June 17.

Mr. Athanasiadis, 30, said he was confident about disproving the Iranian government's accusation of espionage but grew uncertain during the first round of questioning at Tehran's notorious Evin prison because he was blindfolded and slapped once by interrogators who seemed convinced of his guilt and were just pressing for evidence.

However, he said, the second and final rounds of questioning with Intelligence Ministry interrogators were more objective and less intimidating because they put on surgical masks and took off his blindfold so they could see each other eye to eye.

Mr. Athanasiadis said that from the bottom of his blindfold, he could glimpse rows of prisoners sitting on the ground with their heads between their knees and interviews being conducted in hallways because the interrogation rooms were full.

He said that he was isolated in a continuously lit, 5-by-8 cell and that he was kept during the latter part of his stay in a section of the prison reopened during the postelection violence.

The protests in the streets of Tehran continued Friday with thousands of people assembling again in the city's Revolution Square amid reports of government security forces using violence.

Officials say about 20 people have been killed since the June 12 elections, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main opposition candidate, insists he was the victor.

Mr. Mousavi's supporters say as many as 250 people have been killed. The protesters' calls for a recount have been only partially met, and the vote tally has been declared final.

Mr. Athanasiadis told The Times' "America's Morning News" radio program Friday that he likely was targeted for detention because he spoke fluent Farsi and was not a full-time reporter for a major news-gathering organization, which made him "vulnerable."