Britain failed me when Iran tortured me in brutal prison – it will fail again now

When a bomb dropped on the prison where Anoosheh Ashoori once thought he would die a hostage, he did not cheer.

Videos gleefully shared by Iranians across the world showed smoke billowing from the gate of the notorious Evin prison, where Iran’s political prisoners, dissidents and protesters are incarcerated, tortured and on many occasions kept before being executed.

But Ashoori, 71, who spent years within its walls in rat-infested cells, sleeping on mattresses covered in bedbugs and cockroaches, felt no pleasure seeing Israel’s bomb attack on Evin. He simply worried for the fate of those held there.

“The first thing that crossed my mind was the friends that I had left behind,” he said. “Some were injured by flying glass and bits of pieces of concrete and bricks. It was during the day that is when a lot of people are in the yard for fresh air.”

A timeline of images showing Anoosheh Ashoori during his capture, made for his art exhibition ‘Surviving Evin’ (Photo: Family handout)

Ashoori, from London, was kidnapped off the streets of Tehran when he was visiting his mother in 2017, and held hostage by the regime for five years. He was subjected to torture and such extreme threats against his family that he repeatedly tried to take his life in the hope that if he were dead then his wife and children would be safe.

Ashoori’s case took two years to come to public attention because his family were urged by the UK government not to speak out, being told it could make the situation worse. When the Iranian press published his capture, his family began speaking out, and they believe it was public pressure that contributed to his eventual freedom in 2022.

They also believe he was held hostage over the UK’s £400m debt to Iran, a theory seemingly upheld when after 40 years, the balance was paid and Ashoori and fellow captive and British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe were suddenly freed.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori flying into London after their release (Photo: @salqaq/X/Reuters)

Ashoori retains little faith in the UK’s ability to help those trapped under the brutal Iranian regime, pointing out that economic concerns often trump human rights.

Asked about how the UK has handled the regime and the war, he said: “One of the main things that has dominated British politics, and perhaps other European countries as well, is trade.

“It creates certain incentives for these governments to overlook human rights and just go along with the profits that they can.

“The British government doesn’t have a very bright, shiny record for what they could have done, and haven’t.”

Ashoori watched as Israel and the US bombed the country that imprisoned him, but he did not celebrate.

“I am on the side of civilians, rather than governments. It doesn’t matter if they are in Iran, Israel, Gaza, or anywhere in the world, it is [the civilians] who are being targeted and they don’t have any role in any of these policies. They don’t have any role in any of these wars.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may be emboldened if he survives the current war, Ashoori has warned (Photo: Anadolu via Getty)

“People want to live, like [we do] in Britain for example. You want to live, have the security that you deserve and lead a normal life.”

Increasing reports are emerging from Iran that the regime is cracking down on any dissent, with more than 220 people arrested and more than ten executions of people accused of spying for Israel since this war began on 13 June.

“We have come to this point in history that if this regime is not toppled, they will be emboldened,” Ashoori says. “There will be more executions. There will be more arrests.”

“Now [the regime] are super paranoid. They don’t know what to do, but they take it out on ordinary people unfortunately,” Ashoori reflected.

“If they are not toppled soon, I’m afraid we are going to have another [situation] perhaps far worse than what happened in the 1980s,” he added, referring to a period of particular brutality after the 1979 revolution. Its rulers sealed the country off from the outside world, imposed a fundamentalist Shia Islam theocracy, and clamped down on all opposition while a war with Iraq unfolded.

Debris scattered inside the Evin prison complex in Tehran after an Israeli strike (Photo: Mostafa Roudaki/mizanonline/AFP)

Its brutality has not abated since then, with the regime executing prisoners for crimes from anything from protesting against it to drug-related offences.

Since Israel’s attacks on Iran this month, Iranian authorities have intensified a security crackdown, with mass arrests and at least six executions on allegations of spying for Israel.

Ashoori has learned that who remained locked up in Evin have now been moved to another prison in Tehran. “The situation there is far worse because it is very cramped and there are so many other prisoners. In rooms where 15 or 16 of us used to live now, there are more than 50 people. They cannot even sit at the same time.

“What about toilets? What about sanitary care? None of that exists. If somebody catches a cold or there is any disease it can easily be transferred to the others. It is hell.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Officials worked tirelessly to secure the release of Anoosheh Ashoori under the last government. Our consular teams were in close contact with his family and provided support throughout.”

How Anoosheh Ashoori was kidnapped and held hostage

Ashoori was visiting his mother in Tehran when, on a normal day while running errands, his life was instantly transformed into a living hell. 

“A car pulled over, and four men got out. They made sure that I am who I am and they manhandled me into the car. [I was shown] a piece of paper. I was shocked [and felt like] my heart was coming to my mouth. I didn’t know what was happening. It was my arrest warrant and the title was ‘The Anti Espionage Department of the Ministry of Industry’.”

Startled and confused, Ashoori, an engineer and business owner, was blindfolded as officials drove him to an interrogation house. They began their efforts to force a false confession of being a spy from this ordinary then 66-year-old family man.

When he refused to give them a false confession, Ashoori was moved to a second location. 

The infamous gate to Evin prison (Photo: Wana/Reuters)

“We approached Evin rison. It is known to everybody who lives in Tehran because it is such a symbolic place. It was then I knew I was in deep trouble.”

Ashoori says his time in Evin was split into two phases.

“One is the interrogation phase which took 116 days. When they realised that they couldn’t get anything out because there wasn’t anything to extract, they passed me over to the interrogation centre belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).”

He survived two weeks with the regime’s most brutal enforcers who tried to break him. 

During this time he lived in a solitary cell of just two by three metres. A floodlight on the ceiling shone 24 hours a day while broken air-con units blasted him with hot air and the smell of rancid and rotting food.

He recalls: “There was the sound of crying, begging and whimpering of the other victims in the neighbouring cells, long hours of interrogation, a lot of threats every day and at one point my interrogator brought pictures of my son, my daughter, my wife, and he showed them to me.

“He said, ‘Look, you see these smiling faces?… If you do not co-operate with us, and if you do not confess to the things we tell you, soon you will have pictures again, but of their corpses.”

Anoosheh Ashoori with his wife, Sherri, and two children, shortly after his release (Photo: Sanya Burgess)

Ashoori is still shaken by the memory. “After a period of sleep deprivation and all those pressures that are on you, and you’re completely detached from the outside world, you come to believe them.

“So in my solitary confinement, I started reasoning with myself that in order to rid of that death threat, the best thing now – as I cannot convince them that I am innocent – is to not be [alive]. That is what led to my three suicide attempts.”

Eventually, he was able to enter the second phase of his life in prison, in what is known as “Evin university”, for its population of highly educated political prisoners. Their friendship and love of learning is what helped them survive. 

“We started having meetings, and somebody started reciting a few poems and an idea came to my mind [to start] a society, for example a poetry society. I invited friends and it was eight or nine of us who used to gather in this room, and that society led to another society.”

The satirist in the group taught them to write short stories, while another prisoner taught philosophy, and a third economics. 

Anoosheh with his daughter Elika before running the London Marathon (Photo: Family handout)

After four years, seven months and “some days”, Ashoori was finally freed and reunited with his family, who had fought and campaigned tirelessly for him. 

“That was out of this world. Sometimes there are things you cannot put in words, certain happiness you come across. We should create a vocabulary for this type of feeling.”

Since returning home three years ago, he and his family have been recovering from the trauma while making up for lost time. Ashoori has thrown himself into life, including running the London Marathon.

He is even about to have a second showing of his Surviving Evin exhibition, in St John’s Kirk, Perth, Scotland. 

The show includes items he smuggled from Evin, including a collection of the bed bugs and cockroaches that plagued him, which he has set in epoxy resin – which he was inspired to do after one of his captors berated him for lying about the infestation in the cells.

Anoosheh poses with a Star Trek-themed carving he made while locked in Evin prison (Photo: Sanya Burgess)

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email [email protected] in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.