TEHRAN – For Iranian political prisoners, being locked away is not necessarily a barrier to speaking out.
In a series of taboo-breaking letters written from prison, activists, politicians and journalists – most of them arrested in the aftermath of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed June 2009 election victory – have been telling of torture, criticizing Iranian leaders and encouraging others to continue their protests.
Government officials and their supporters in the media say the criticisms threaten national security and are demanding that judiciary officials put a stop to them.
Abdollah Momeni, a former student leader, described in vivid detail in a recent letter how he was brutally beaten dozens of times by his interrogators, kept for weeks in a tomblike cell and forced to confess to crimes he says he did not commit.
