TEHRAN, 8 April 2007 — An Iranian diplomat freed two months after being abducted in Iraq said he was tortured by the CIA during his detention, Iranian state television reported.
Jalal Sharafi, who returned to Iran almost a week ago, was quoted as saying the CIA questioned him about Iran’s relations with Iraq and assistance to various Iraqi groups, and tortured him when he answered them, according to state television. “Once they heard my response that Iran merely has official relations with the Iraqi government and officials, they intensified tortures and tortured me through different methods day and night,” he said.
In the report read by a newscaster, Sharafi, second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, said he was kidnapped by agents of an Iraqi organization operating under CIA supervision.
State television said signs of torture were still visible on Sharafi, who is currently in Iran and is being treated at a hospital. Images of Sharafi were not shown. The television quoted Sharafi as saying he was approached by agents while shopping in a Baghdad street. The agents allegedly showed him Iraqi Defense Ministry identification papers and were driving US coalition vehicles.
He said they took him to a base near Baghdad airport and interrogated him in both Arabic and English, questioning him mainly about Iran’s influence in Iraq and assistance to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s government and Iraqi groups.
After the initial interrogation, Sharafi said that his captors “softened their behavior and showed leniency to encourage” him to cooperate.
“I explained I was unable to do anything outside my legal responsibilities,” Sharafi was quoted as saying. “Later, they released me under pressure from Iraqi government officials. They dropped me near the back of the airport.”
An adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meanwhile denied that 15 British sailors and Marines seized by Iran had been mistreated, saying they had made such claims under pressure from their superiors.
“The mistreatment of the sailors is a lie,” said Ali Akbar Javanfekr, top press spokesman for the president. “The British authorities should know that they cannot keep hiding the truth from the British people,” he said.
“We envisioned that the 15 sailors would be subjected to pressure by British security and intelligence forces. For that reason, President Ahmadinejad asked Prime Minister Tony Blair not to put pressure on the sailors for having told the truth, but (he) did not hear this humanitarian appeal,” Javanfekr said.
“London’s attitude was foreseeable, because expression of the truth by the sailors would have been a challenge to the British government and Army.
“By dictating certain statements made by the freed troops, the British authorities are seeking to improve their situation and diminish the pressure of British public opinion.”
The 15 British naval personnel told on Friday how they were stripped, blindfolded and handcuffed as part of “psychological” intimidation during their detention. This was in stark contrast to their statements on Iranian TV earlier that they were well treated during their captivity.
Separately, an official at Iran’s Baghdad Embassy was quoted as saying yesterday that Iran has still not received a reply to a request for consular access to five Iranians held by US forces in Iraq.
“There has been no reply to Iran’s request, but a UN representative and the (Iranian) embassy are trying to carry out Iran’s legal right for our consulate to meet them and make sure they are all right and thus ease the concerns of their families,” the official at the Iranian Embassy in Iraq was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
