TEHRAN – In a press conference on Tuesday Jalal Sharafi, the Iranian diplomat who was released on April 3 by its kidnappers in Iraq, elaborated on its torture while in custody in Iraq. He said the interrogators were seeking to “damage relations between Iran and Iraq” and inculcating this view that Iran is a threat to regional countries.”

He said the torturers asked him “why Iran helps the Islamic groups in Iraq and what are these groups. Why Iran supports the Maliki government and Iraqi people. Is there any secret relations? Why do you help the Sunni scholars, and some questions about detained Iranian diplomats in Irbil, the relations between Barzani and Talabani with Iran and which persons purchase uranium for Iran…”

He said the kidnappers, who spoke in English and Arabic, were in constant contact with their chiefs through walkie talkies when abducted him on the Baghdad streets.

“In the first four and five days an eight-person group regularly beat met up day and night,” Sharafi told reporters while doctors at his side. He added at the last stage of his interrogation somebody who introduced himself as American and a mediator between the U.S. embassy and the person in charge of my case came to me and since I could not understand English the words were translated into Arabic for me.”

On Tuesday, the head of the International Red Cross in Tehran examined the torture marks on the body of Jalal Sharafi, the Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in Iraq on February 4 and released on April 3.

In a Tehran hospital at which Iraq’s ambassador to Tehran Mohamed Majid Al-Sheikh was also present, Peter Stoeker observed holes drilled in Sharafi’s leg, fractures of the nose and neck, some deep injuries on his back, a tear to his ear and evidence of bleeding in the alimentary canal.

Sharafi -- the second secretary at Iran’s Baghdad embassy -- was abducted in southeastern Baghdad on February 4 by a group connected to the Iraqi Defense Ministry which operates under the supervision of the U.S. forces in Iraq.

According to his doctor the torture signs on his body are clearly visible.

The freed diplomat is recovering at a hospital in Tehran.

Sharafi told the Red Cross representative that he had undergone horrific torturing during the first 15 days of his arrest.

Stoeker said there were marks on Jalal Sharafi's feet, legs, back and nose. Stoeker said he had been happy to meet Sharafi in hospital because his organization had been unable to find him in Iraq.

A few days after his release, Sharafi told the IRNA news agency that he was tortured by his captors, including CIA agents.

Sharafi said agents had interrogated him on his country’s role in Iraq.

He said he had been taken from his car by men in Iraqi army uniforms and was subjected to torture "day and night".

“I was kidnapped on a Baghdad street while shopping, by officials who had Iraqi Defense Ministry ID cards and were riding in U.S. forces vehicles,” he said.

Sharafi said he was taken from the Karrada district to a base near Baghdad airport and questioned in Arabic and English. “‘The CIA officials’ questions focused mainly on Iran’s presence and influence in Iraq,” he told IRNA.

"When faced with my responses concerning Iran’s official ties with the Iraqi government they increased the torture.”