Letters to My Torturer

Prominent Iranian journalist and political activist, Houshang Asadi was used to being arrested. This time, however, was different. Little did he know in 1983 he would spend the next six years being brutally, mindlessly tortured by the very people he supported. Brother Hamid, Asadi's torturer, stopped at nothing to extract his 'confessions'. Asadi was a spy for Russia, for Britain, for anyone or anything. Hamid became an ambassador, Asadi a fugitive, haunted by nightmares and persisting pain. His feet lashed till lame, blindfolded, he was grilled until he could no longer phrase a simple question himself. Through these letters, Asadi recounts how his accidental friendship with a previous fellow prisoner, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, finally saved his life - and confronts his torturer one last time.