Late last month, Mr. Batebi safely arrived in the United States after serving nine years of his sentence. He spoke to The Economist this week [1] about his years in Evin prison, where he suffered through harsh conditions. He told the magazine of a two-year stint in solitary confinement and a partial stroke. He was also tortured repeatedly: "During his interrogation he was blindfolded and beaten with cables until he passed out. His captors rubbed salt into his wounds to wake him up, so they could torture him more. They held his head in a drain full of sewage until he inhaled it. He recalls yearning for a swift death to end the pain."