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May 19, 2011

Freed Al Jazeera Journalist Recounts Syria Jailing 
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The freed Al Jazeera journalist Dorothy Parvaz has spoken out about her
ordeal since her arrest in Syria late last month. Parvaz was missing for
19 days after arriving in Damascus to report on Syria's anti-government
protests. She was jailed in a Syrian prison before being deported to
Iran. On Wednesday, Parvaz said she overheard the beatings of other
prisoners in Syria.

Dorothy Parvaz: "I was in a Syrian detention center for three days, two
nights, and what I heard were just savage beatings. I was handcuffed
repeatedly, blindfolded, taken to a courtyard, left to hear these men
being beaten. They all sounded very young, they sounded to be in their
late teens, early twenties. So it was an overall terrifying experience."

Parvaz says she was treated "relatively fair" after being sent to Iran,
but that the abuse of Syrian prisoners haunted her thoughts.

Dorothy Parvaz: "My thoughts though were, aside from being with my
family and worrying about whether or not they knew where I was, were
with the people in Syria and the younger people I saw there. I couldn't
understand the reason—not just why the men were being beaten, but
there were young women. I talked to young women who had been clearly
just swept up, blindfolded and taken to these places and not been told
why. They had no contact with their families, either."



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