Iranian student on iconic Economist cover escapes to America

Ahmad Batebi, an Iranian student, was sentenced to death nine years ago for appearing on the cover of the Economist under the banner “Iran’s second revolution?” He was pictured holding the bloodsoaked shirt of a fellow student protestor — an unforgettable image that apparently was too much for the Islamic Republic to bear. After enduring years of solitary confinement and torture, the student activist and photographer escaped, crossed into Iraq, and recently made it to the United States.

Today, the Economist reports on Batebi’s experiences after he was apprehended and Iranian authorities told him that appearing on the cover of The Economist constituted a “death warrant”:

During his interrogation he was blindfolded and beaten with cables until he passed out. His captors rubbed salt into his wounds to wake him up, so they could torture him more. They held his head in a drain full of sewage until he inhaled it. He recalls yearning for a swift death to end the pain. He was played recordings of what he was told was his mother being tortured. His captors wanted him to betray his fellow students, to implicate them in various crimes and to say on television that the blood on that T-shirt was only red paint. He says he refused.”

In a moment reminiscent of the Shawshank Redemption, Batebi can be seen on his blog photographing himself in front of the U.S. Capitol building. Welcome to Washington, Ahmad.