Roger Cohen, "The Other Iran Letter": Now Read a Real Open Letter Written From Prison by the Iranian Poet Hashem Shaabani

In a New York Times op-ed entitled "The Other Iran Letter," Roger Cohen pens an "open letter to the leaders of the United States of America." Well, anyone who reads this blog knows what I think of Roger ("Iran is not totalitarian") Cohen, and rather than relate to Cohen's drivel, I prefer to provide you with a portion of a real open letter written from an Iranian prison in 2013 by the poet Hashem Shaabani:

"In February 11/2011 when I was at home and after my return of the Sheakh Ansari minor school (I am a teacher and I was teaching Arabic language in different minor school and high school) the Iranian intelligence services arrested me and after a long interrogation they accused me of the founder of the popular Resistance movement for liberation of Ahwaz and as I mentioned above I used this nicknames just to express my feeling toward the misery and the unspeakable oppression of my people and these nicknames have nothing to do with outside but the interrogators of mine refused my claims and let me to confess on myself under the severe and unbearable tortures physically and psychologically. Under the ongoing tortures I have lost my control on my real conscious and my mind engulfed with hallucination that made me to confess and accept the imposed charges that extracted of myself and the friends of mine by harsh tortures in the solitary confinement. After a long term in the solitary confinement the intelligence service transferred me to the Karoon prison. My first trial along with my friends was on May 21/2012 in the revolutionary court of Ahwaz in which I understood the reality and strongly rejected the charges of having link with organizations outside of the country and I said to the judge that the external organization that you are claiming about it ,is nobody just me Hashem Shabbani. In fact I confessed on myself due to the severe tortures and the intelligence security extracted the confessions from me and my friends according to their will. Finally after passing three sessions of my trial in court I have got aware of the fake scenario that fabricated by the intelligence service by extracting baseless confessions and using them against us. I have got shocked when I read the verified death penalty sentences that issued against me and four of my friends along with 20 years in exile for my friend Rahman Assakre."

Hashem Shaabani was hanged to death on January 27, 2014 after "moderate" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani approved the sentence.