SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) —The released Iranian national, Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan, who was in a United States prison for five years over unfounded allegations, tells Press TV that she had “the most horrifying experience” there as a political hostage.
“It was the most horrifying experience that anybody could have in life,” Mir-Qolikhan said in a Thursday interview.
Referring to the ordeal of her five-year incarceration, she said, “It was politically motivated. I was a political hostage.”
“The whole trial, the whole prosecution was all false. It’s like when you are in a spider web and you are hunted there and there is no way out and you cannot do anything,” she pointed out.
Mir-Qolikhan was reportedly kidnapped by US agents in December 2007.
She was detained and sentenced to five years in prison by a Florida federal court. She has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
She gave several interviews to Press TV during her time in prison, speaking of her terrifying ordeal and mistreatment at the hands of prison staff. She said that she had been harshly treated and tortured by prison officials.
Mir-Qolikhan pointed out that the US officials subjected her to “mental torture” by constantly warning her that she will face a 65-year prison sentence if she fails to submit to all their demands.
Pointing to instances of physical torture she had been subjected to, Mir-Qolikhan went on to say that the prison officials kept her “all in chain” in “freezing-cold cells” for 18 hours in an attempt to “exhaust you and break you until you say: Ok. Enough is enough. [I will submit to] whatever you say.”
“During the course of my trials, there were times when I would say: God, I would rather be given death penalty by them…, but I cannot go back in there anymore,” she added.
Mir-Qolikhan lashed out at the US administration for not notifying the Iranian government of her arrest during the first three years of her incarceration, saying Washington concealed the fact from Tehran in an attempt to “cause confusion for the Iranian government.”
“I wrote over 20 letters to President [Barack] Obama, but I never got any response. I wrote many letters to [US Secretary of State] Mrs. Hilary Clinton,” she added.
The Iranian national slammed the US Federal Bureau of Prisons as an apparatus that merely seeks to make money, and added, “At the US prisons, the inmates, not only me, even the American inmates” are treated with no respect. “There is no value. You are not considered a human.”
“Everything that you see from the outside is an image that they create to show to the world. However, if you take your camera inside the prison, you will witness how, even the American citizens, are suffering from the lack of [respect] for human rights…,” she added.
Mir-Qolikhan reiterated her resolve to file a lawsuit with international courts against the US for her illegal detention, saying, “I am still fighting for my case. I am collecting all the falsified documents to have the proof to take the case to the International Court of Justice.”
According to Iran’s Ambassador to Oman Hossein Noushabadi, the Iranian government has also filed complaints with international courts and human rights organizations about the abuse of Mir-Qolikhan’s rights and has even submitted a request for redress.—www.shafaqna.com/english
Source: WR NEWZ
