Letters to My Torturer: Love, Revolution, and Imprisonment in Iran (43 page)

98
A death sentence is one of the cruellest sentences issued in Iran. The prisoner sentenced to execution can be hanged or shot at any time, whenever it’s deemed necessary. Consequently, the prisoner would often spend years, never knowing when the sentence would be carried out. Some individuals have spent up to twelve years in this situation.

99
Drugs would sometimes be carefully wrapped in multiple plastic sheets, swallowed and brought into prison undetected.

100
Moharebeh is an Islamic offence that means “waging war against God”. Those convicted of being Moharebs face execution under Iran’s Shari’a legal code.

101
Qur’an: 9: 73.

102
Saeed Emami, also known as Saeed Eslami, was the Islamic Republic’s most terrifying security official. He returned from the US after the Islamic revolution, and became Deputy Minister of Intelligence, in which role he organized the mass murder of the intelligentsia, the socalled Serial Murders. He was imprisoned during Muhammad Khatemi’s leadership and was mysteriously killed while in prison.

103
One thousand individuals were identified by name in a UN Human Rights Commission’s Special Representative’s Report, “Names and Particulars of Persons Allegedly Executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran during the period July–December 1988”, published on 26 January, 1989. The report specifies that although 1,000 names are mentioned, “in all probability” there were several thousand victims.
“Most of the alleged victims were members of the Mujahedin. However, members of the Tudeh Party, People’s Fedayeen Organization, Rahe Kargar, and Komala Organization, and eleven mullahs were also said to be among the alleged victims.”

104
Azadi Square, or Liberty Square, is the name of a very large square in the west of Tehran. In the middle of the square, a beautiful tower was erected in 1971, combining both Sassanid and Islamic architectural styles, in commemoration of the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire. Initially, the tower and the square were called the Martyrs’ Tower and Square but after the revolution, the square was renamed Liberty Square.