WASHINGTON – Michael White had just arrived at a bleak Iranian prison when a curious inmate, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the courtyard for a chat.
The American didn’t reveal much at first, but it was the beginning of an unlikely friendship between White, a Navy veteran imprisoned on espionage charges he says was baseless, and Mahdi Vatankhah, a young Iranian political activist whose positions on social issues have caught his attention. anger of the government.
As the men connect behind bars over a shared interest in politics and human rights, they develop a bond that proves vital to both.
Vatankhah, while in custody and after his release, helped White by providing White’s mother with important information about her son’s status in prison and by delivering letters White wrote while he was locked up.
After being released, Putih did not forget.
He successfully denied Vatankhah entry to the United States this year, allowing the men to be reunited last spring inside a Los Angeles airport, something that would have been unimaginable when they first met in prison years earlier.
Iranian political activist Mahdi Vatankhah pauses for a photo at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles.AP
“He risked his life to get that information for me when I was in prison in Iran. He really did,” said White in an interview with Vatankhah. “I told him that I would do everything in my power to bring him here because I think, one, it is for his safety in his own life. And I also feel that he can get members of the community to contribute here.”
This year, White received permission for Vatankhah to stay temporarily in the US under a government program known as humanitarian parole, which allows people to enter for urgent humanitarian reasons or if there is significant public benefit.
Vatankhah told AP she has dreamed of coming to the US since she can remember. When he landed, “It was like the best moment of my life. My whole life changed.”
Michael White, a Navy veteran imprisoned in Iran for several years on espionage charges, right, hugs Michael’s former prisoner and Iranian political activist Mahdi Vatankhah.AP
White, 50, a Southern California native who spent 13 years in the Navy, was arrested in Iran in 2018 after traveling to the country to have a romantic relationship with a woman he met online.
He was jailed on multiple charges, including espionage charges he called false, as well as alleged insults to Iran’s supreme leader.
She endured what she says was torture and sexual abuse, an ordeal she documented in a handwritten diary she kept secretly behind bars, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in what the US government says was a wrongful arrest.
Vatankhah, now 24, said he has been in and out of prison since he was a teenager for his involvement in leftist efforts and vocal criticism of the Iranian government, including through protests, social media posts and university newspaper clippings.
He met White in 2018 after such an arrest when Vatankhah faced charges of spreading propaganda against the Tehran government.
Michael White, Mahdi Vatankhah and Jonathan Franks, a consultant in the US for families of American hostages and detainees, leave the terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.AP
Although Vatankhah was later released, he was arrested again, this time ending up in the same cell as White in Iran’s Mashhad prison.
During their friendship, Vatankhah helps White survive his incarceration and better understand the judicial system, serving as an interpreter to help him communicate with guards and inmates. In early 2020, while Vatankhah was on vacation, he also became an important conduit to the outside world for White.
Using the contact information White gave her, Vatankhah contacted Jonathan Franks, a consultant in the US for families of American hostages and detainees who was working on White’s case and later helped spearhead the humanitarian parole process for Vatankhah. He also talks to White’s mother and smuggles out White’s letters.
Vatankhah, both in custody and after his release, helped White by giving White’s mother an important, first-hand account of her son’s status in prison and by delivering letters White wrote while he was locked up.AP
The detailed information about White, his status and his health – he is suffering from cancer and COVID-19 in prison – comes at a critical time, providing evidence of life at a time of heightened tensions between the US and Iran due to the US drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who led the Quds Force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard expedition.
White was released in a June 2020 prisoner exchange, exchanged for an American-Iranian doctor imprisoned in the US for violating American sanctions laws. Vatankhah, released in the same year, went to Turkey.
White argued in his March application on behalf of Vatankhah that his friend met the criteria for humanitarian parole because, despite having moved to Turkey, he continued to face harassment because of his political views. Vatankhah wrote in her own petition that the situation was not safe for her in Turkey. He stated that the Turkish police had raided his home and that he was still at risk of deportation to Iran.
White successfully supported Vatankhhah’s entry into the United States. AP
Paris Etemadi Scott, a California lawyer who has worked with White and Vatankhah and filed humanitarian parole applications on Iran’s behalf, said Vatankhah’s assistance to an American citizen — a veteran, no less — increases the validity and urgency of his petition because it adds to the potential that Vatankhah could face imminent danger.
While many applicants lacked important supporting documents, “Mahdi had this amazing amount of evidence to show that he had actually been imprisoned repeatedly,” he said.
A State Department spokesman said in a statement that the department’s office of the president’s special envoy for hostage affairs had been working hard to secure White’s release in 2020, and after learning of Vatankhah’s case, “worked hand in hand with several partners in the US. government,” including the White House National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security, to ensure its arrival in the US.
Vatankhah now lives in San Diego, where White is from. Vatankhah said his humanitarian parole is good for one year, but he has already applied for asylum, which would allow him to remain in the US. He got a work permit and got a job as a caretaker.
He also enjoys the freedom to share his political views freely without fear of retribution.
“I like to express my ideas here where I can. I can continue to use my freedom to speak out against the Iranian regime.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
