The Book

This is the story of my 222 days as a state hostage in Iran. I was arrested during my fifth visit to the country, while I was helping an Iranian company promote their tours in Europe. 

I arrived a few days after the death of Mahsa Amini – an event that sparked nationwide protests – and I witnessed police brutality, troops on the streets and a burnt-out mosque in the city of Rasht. 

After my arrest on 3 October 2022, I was held in solitary confinement and interrogated up to four times a day. Every time I left my cell I was handcuffed and blindfolded. Three days were spent in a basement hospital room handcuffed to a bed and a drip in my arm. No one would tell me what was in it. 

Later I was taken to Mashhad Central Prison, which is rumored to have 20,000 inmates, and put in “Satan’s block” – home to political prisoners and foreigners, mostly drug smugglers. The prison workers who did a lot of the day-to-day work were murders, rapists, gangsters. Here I met Benjamin Brière the French national who had already spent over two years in jail.

For visits to the revolutionary court, which refused to recognise my Iranian lawyer, I had to wear prison uniform, was handcuffed to another prisoner and had shackles on my feet, it made climbing three flights of stairs awkward and painful.