The torture of an educator in the prison of the intelligence agency

Farzad Kamangar, an educator and member of the teachers union in the
village of Kamyaran in the west of Iran has been tortured in the
lockup of the intelligence agency.

During the summer of 2006 Farzad Kamangar along with his friends, Ali
Heydarian and Farhad Vakili was arrested by the agents of the
intelligence agency in the city of Sanandaj. During the four initial
months the family of Mr. Kamangar was unaware of the location of his
imprisonment; later it was stated that Farzad was imprisoned in the
high security lockup 209.

In advance to those statements, human rights activists in the west of
Iran had reported that Farzad Kamangar was held in solitary
confinement in 209 security lockup and was severely exposed to both
psychological and Physical abuse. Farzad has recently described on a
letter that was smuggled out of prison, the torture he was exposed to.
He has written in that letter, that as soon as the interrogator found
out he was Kurdish he was flogged with a garden hose. He also wrote
that he was dreadfully affronted because of his beliefs, and was
intensely beaten.

Farzad Wrote, that he was tied down to a chair in a little confined
space close to the prison clinic for 24 hours. He was not permitted to
visit the lavatory nor to eat.

Farzad also wrote in his letter that following the increase of torture
and pursue in the security lockup of 209 he was exposed to, and the
harassment of his family, and the arrestment of a girl that he was
interested in, he attempted a suicide in the security lockup 209, he
threw himself down the stairs, however he did not succeed.

In security lockup 209 he was incarcerated in a very small cell where
he was not permitted to go out for fresh air, neither was he allowed
having any contact with his family via the telephone or meeting his
defending lawyer.

Furthermore he wrote that during October 2006, even when no accusation
had been made against him, he was transferred from the security lockup
of 209, to the lockup of the intelligence agency in the city of
Kermanshah and was incarcerated in solitary confinement measuring 1m x
1m x 0.6m. In this incarceration he was exposed to noise torture and
was only allowed to leave the cell only twice in order to use the
toilet. In the basement of the lockup he was tied down to a bed and he
was than flogged on the back and on the feet.

Continuously Farzad wrote that he was taken to the basement of the
lockup where he was stripped of his clothes and then raped. In protest
to this ill treatment he hit his head against the wall several times.