The picture also turned out to be a weapon in the hands of Batebi's prosecutors. It ended up on the front page of The Economist with the headline "Iran's Secret Revolution?" When Batebi was arraigned in court, the judge held up the magazine bearing the offending image and said: "... for this you will be put to death."
Batebi was sentenced to what some might regard as a fate-worse-than-death. He was sent to
Evin prison with its notorious political prisoners' wing.
In 2003, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist,
Zahra Kazemi, was arrested for taking pictures of Evin prison and was
subsequently beaten to death while in Iranian custody. Doctors who examined her body said there was evidence of rape, torture and a skull fracture.
Ahmad Batebi was also tortured. Although only 31, he bears the scars of years of abuse. He was repeatedly blindfolded, beaten and deprived of sleep. More extreme treatment involved floggings with metal cables, being suspended from the ceiling and having his head dunked in excrement. He was also taunted with mock executions. On one occasion he was blindfolded and led to the gallows. As he waited with the noose around his neck, he could hear prisoners on either side of him being hung.
He suffered a partial stroke, kidney damage, ulcers and impaired vision as a result of the treatment he endured. The international attention his case attracted, was likely a key factor in saving Batebi from execution.
His sentence was commuted to 15 years. After serving eight years of the sentence, he was granted temporary leave from prison. He fled and laid low for a period before escaping the country with the assistance of the Kurdish underground. He made it into Iraq and eventually to America, after his request for "humanitarian parole" was granted.
Predictably the Iranian authorities have tried to discredit Batebi. They concocted crude propaganda - accusing him of defrauding creditors and of being in cahoots with the US and Israel.
Ahmad Batebi is a guy who retains deep feelings of loyalty for his country despite all he has endured. He has been described by Zahir Janmohamed of
Amnesty International as: “ ... a human rights activist (whose) credentials are unquestionable.”
Batebi has described an event from his childhood that had a powerful impact on his thinking. It happened when he was only nine years old. He heard a commotion outside his home and against his mother's wishes went outside to see what was happening. A man accused of adultery had been buried up his waist by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. They placed a sack over the man's head and began to stone him - hurling chunks of concrete. Batebi recalls the horror he experienced as a young boy, as he watched the sack become red with blood.
As a child he had been raised by a mother who taught him an enlightened 'Golden Rule' Islam, quite the opposite of the draconian, law based Islam of the mullahs. The murder he had witnessed seemed contrary to everything he had been taught, and he recalls asking himself: "... can this be Islam?" For some time afterwards he was so shaken by what he had witnessed that he suffered recurrent nightmares.
Batebi makes a point of describing himself as a human rights activist, rather than a political activist. He wants the West to know about the thousands of dissidents who remain incarcerated in Iran.
There are many different factions within the Iranian exile community in the US, and there will doubtless be political pressure on Batebi. One thing is clear. He is not an apologist for US foreign policy and is very sensitive about being perceived as any type of pawn for the Americans.
When asked about the possibility of an American attack on Iran, it is clear where his loyalties would lie.
He said, if the United States attacked Iran - “I might go back and fight for my country myself.”
