📻Mourad Tahbaz: They showed me Saeed Emami, and told me not to cooperate—this is what will happen to you—Special Interview

🔻Mourad Tahbaz, one of the founders of the Par­sians Persian Heritage Wildlife Institute, spent close to six years in Evin Prison. Now, on the eve of the release of his book, “Green Parrots,” in his first long interview with a Persian-language media outlet—on BBC Persian’s program “Special Interview”—he talks about his arrest, interrogation, and years in prison.

He recounts how Revolutionary Guards intelligence officers showed him the lifeless image of Kavous Seyed-Emami and told him that if he did not cooperate, “the same thing” would happen to him. Tahbaz also speaks about physical and psychological torture; from a sharp object that they placed on his neck with a blindfold, to sparks they created near his face, and charges that—according to him—sometimes led to questions about “spy lizards.”

Tahbaz, who holds American and British citizenship, says that during efforts to secure his release, he came to understand that he was being treated like “merchandise.”

You can watch the video version of this program via the link below.