Sepideh Gholian's Account of Torture in Detention with Esmail Bakhshi

Sepideh Gholian, a civil activist who was arrested in November along with Esmail Bakhshi and several workers from the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Company, detailed the torture she and Bakhshi experienced while detained. On Wednesday, January 9, she tweeted that intelligence agents claimed the torture was a result of 'delusions' on her and Bakhshi's part. Gholian recalled the '30 days of brutal and inhumane treatment' that still brings tears to her eyes and makes her tremble. During the arrest, Bakhshi tried to pull her away from the agents' beatings but was beaten so severely that he lost consciousness. She added that the torture Bakhshi endured from the time of his arrest until his transfer to the intelligence detention center in Ahvaz was so severe that she thought he was dead during the first ten days of detention. Gholian stated, 'For ten days, I couldn't eat, nor did I know if it was night or day. I was screaming until they became fed up with my restlessness and took me close to his interrogation room, where I heard his wounded voice. My brother Esmail was alive.' According to Gholian, during her detention, she was threatened with a cable to write a confession and expressed, 'I wish the torture had been limited to beatings. The introduction of sexual accusations, in a place where my screams would not reach anyone, was the most painful part of the ordeal.' She also tweeted that the intelligence agents said they would only release her if she accepted the sexual accusations. Gholian mentioned that her interrogator threatened her, saying, 'If you go out and speak, we will broadcast your forced confessions and those of Esmail Bakhshi on 20:30 news [television]. We will ruin you.' In another tweet, she described witnessing the brutal beatings of Bakhshi during his detention and humiliation during interrogations, where he was forced to insult himself in front of others. Gholian expressed her willingness to testify about the torture she and Bakhshi faced in a fair court. News of Bakhshi's torture has reached the highest levels of power in the Islamic Republic of Iran, with President Hassan Rouhani ordering an investigation into the matter, and Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani appointing a committee to investigate his torture. The National Security Commission of the Parliament has also summoned Mahmoud Alavi, the Minister of Intelligence, for explanations, but Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of this commission, announced that Alavi denied Bakhshi's torture, leading to the matter being removed from the commission's agenda. Farzaneh Zilabi, Bakhshi's lawyer, reacted by saying that the statements of the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission surprised her, as they were made before a verdict and during preliminary investigations by someone who is a member of the legislative body. She also deemed Falahatpisheh's reference to Bakhshi's confession video as a clear example of lawlessness in the legislative body, adding, 'The Parliament should be the voice of the people, not special institutions.' Bakhshi, in detailing the torture he and Gholian faced during their detention, has called for public accountability from the Minister of Intelligence in a televised debate. According to Bakhshi, intelligence agents 'beat' him and Gholian and hurled 'various types of vulgar sexual insults' at them, and his family conversations were also 'monitored.'