“They put me in prison. The first 18 months were horrible because I was in all ways tortured. Physically, not beating me but keeping me for 18 hours in a freezing cell all in chains, chains around my waist and my hands and my feet. And they always put the chains and handcuffs in a way that my skin would come off,” Mir-Qolikhan told Press TV after her arrival in Tehran from Oman on Sunday night. 

 

She added, “They (U.S. officials) were just appointing U.S. public attorneys. However, they told me to start with, I had to pay the first attorney USD 20,000. He was a public attorney.” 

 

Several years ago, Mir-Qolikhan and her former husband were arrested by the Austrian police on charges of purchasing dual-use equipment. She was released from prison after completing her sentence and returned to Iran. 

 

Mir-Qolikhan told Press TV via telephone from inside prison on November 1, 2010 that she was duped into visiting the United States in 2007 by U.S. officials, who then tried to “make her a spy” and use her to find the whereabouts of her ex-husband.   

 

She was then sentenced to five years in prison.

 

She was released from prison a few days ago and arrived in the Omani capital Muscat on August 7. 

 

Iran had sought the mediation of the Sultanate of Oman in the case. 

 

EP/PA