Post-imprisonment
After his release Bahari recounted his time in prison in interviews and writings. He appeared on a segment of the television news program 60 Minutes and was the subject of an article in Newsweek. Bahari stated he confessed for television after physical and psychological torture. He was held in solitary confinement, interrogated daily (either blindfolded or made to face away from his interrogator), threatened with execution, and repeatedly slapped, kicked, punched, and hit with a belt by his interrogator. Bahari's interrogator told him they knew he (Bahari) "was working for four different intelligence agencies: the CIA, Mossad, MI6 and Newsweek." Bahari (who vehemently denies spying on Iran) believes it was desperation to find "any evidence to prove I was a spy" that led his captors to believe his providing an American TV personality with a list of Iranians they could talk to in Iran, was evidence of his being a spy. (Bahari provided such a list shortly before he was interviewed by Jason Jones a "correspondent" of The Daily Show, who dressed up as a spy as a joke for the story.) He believes he was targeted to intimidate other international Iranian-born journalists, who unlike foreign journalists can operate free of regime minders, blend in with crowds, and understand the cultural and linguistic nuances of the moves the regime makes.
In interviews Bahari stated that his interrogator told him not to talk about what happened to him in prison, as the Revolutionary Guards have "people all around the world and they can always bring me back to Iran in a bag". Bahari has stated that he will not be able to safely return to Iran until the Islamic Republic falls. In Iran he was tried in absentia by a revolutionary court, and sentenced to thirteen and a half years' imprisonment plus 74 lashes.
Read more about this topic: Maziar Bahari