Detention, Torture, and Resistance
Immediately after his capture, Zia-Zarifi was subjected to intense torture as SAVAK tried to gather information about the group’s activities. According to government documents released after the revolution, the torture was so severe that Zia-Zarifi was hospitalized after two days. Over the course of his first year in detention, Hassan was hospitalized a total of 12 days as a result of torture. He was strapped to a metal chair heated to extreme temperatures. He was also subjected to wearing heavily weighted chains around his wrists and ankles.
Only after a year in detention did Zia-Zarifi finally get a hearing in a court, albeit a patently unfair one. He, along with 13 other members of the group (including Jazani) faced a military tribunal that was blatantly unjust and observed no due process whatsoever. The prosecutor asked the court to apply the death penalty to Zia-Zarifi and Jazani.
The trial elicited tremendous condemnation inside and outside Iran. Observers from various human rights groups, including Amnesty International, as well as the British Parliament, were horrified by the prisoners’ accounts of torture and shocked by the utter disregard for legal process. Under international pressure, the tribunal lowered its verdict to the maximum allowable by law: Zia-Zarifi was sentenced to 10 years in prison (the initial verdict was ten years solitary confinement but Zia-Zarifi was later removed from solitary).
Zia-Zarifi continued his resistance against the government while in prison. He acted as a lawyer for convicts, many of whom were completely ignorant of their rights. He also continuously provided educational sessions for fellow prisoners about the failures of the Shah’s government. Zia-Zarifi viewed prison as an opportunity to gain greater familiarity with Iranian society and to establish, by example and through political argument, a model of resistance to the Shah’s government. Zia-Zarifi was eventually moved to Rasht prison, where he was close to his family in Lahijan.
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