Former P-I reporter Dorothy Parvaz was handcuffed, heard beatings

Dorothy Parvaz, a former Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter freed Tuesday after being detained in Syria and Iran for weeks, said she was handcuffed and blindfolded in Syria, where she heard the sounds of "savage beatings."

"I was handcuffed repeatedly, blindfolded, taken to a courtyard and just left to hear these men being beaten," Parvaz told Al Jazeera, her current employer.

"They all sounded very young, they all sounded to be in their late teens or early twenties. So it was an overall terrifying experience."

She said she was in Syrian detention for three days, where she described the beatings as "savage."

"I didn't know what these men had done, one agent said that two of them were responsible for murders in or near Deraa," she said.

She said the beatings took place nearly 24 hours a day, trying to force confessions from young men who pleaded for the abuse to stop and apparently had nothing to admit to.

Dorothy Parvaz, pictured in a portrait taken while she was with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Dorothy Parvaz, pictured in a portrait taken while she was with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Former P-I reporter Dorothy Parvaz was handcuffed, heard beatings 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Parvaz said when she was first detained in Syria, there was a suggestion that she was a "U.S. spy for Israel." But it quickly became clear, she said in the Al Jazeera interview, that her work for the network was the reason for her detention because Syrian leaders believe the broadcast reports have "caused huge problems" for them.

After three days, she said three men dragged her "kicking and screaming" on a plane bound for Iran. But they told her that she was going to Qatar.

When she was Iran, she was treated well, Parvaz told Al Jazeera.

Parvaz has now written her story for Al Jazeera, detailing her three hellish days in Syrian custody.

She begins this way:

I was standing in two fist-sized pools of smeared, sticky blood, trying to sort out why there were seven angry Syrians yelling at me. Only one of them - who I came to know as Mr Shut Up during my three days in a detention center, where so many Syrians 'disappeared' are being kept - spoke English.

Watching them searching my bags, and observing the set of handcuffs hanging from the bunk bed wedged behind the desk in the middle of the room, I guessed that I was being arrested - or, at the very least, processed for detention.

"Why are doing this?" I asked.

"Shut up! SHUT UP!" said Mr Shut Up.

She told her fiance, Todd Barker, that she'd been held in solitary confinement, questioned by Iranian authorities and prevented from contacting her family, according to The Seattle Times.

But she said she was treated respectfully.

"I had a clean room, I had a physical check-up with the doctor as soon as I showed up. All of my questions were answered as much as they could be," she told Al Jazeera.

"The women who looked after me at the women's detention center were extraordinarily kind, twice a day I was taken out for fresh air. I'm a vegetarian, that diet was adhered to, any medication I needed."

Parvaz confirmed she was freed from detainment Tuesday night, in a phone call to Barker. Her first words, according to the Times were: "I'm so sorry."

"I just got off the phone with Dorothy," her fiance, Todd Barker, said in a statement Tuesday.

"She is safe in Doha and will be coming to Vancouver, B.C., soon. We can't wait to see her. She said that she was treated well in Iran. She sounded positive and grateful for the support -- but a little embarrassed. We are very thankful to Iranian authorities for her release and good treatment."

Al Jazeera released this statement:

"I'm delighted to let you know that Dorothy Parvaz has been released and is safe and well and back with us in Doha. She has been in contact with her family, and we are with her now to find out more about her ordeal over the last nineteen days."

Parvaz's father, Fred, told CBC News that his daughter called him in Vancouver about 9:30 p.m. Tueday from Doha, Qatar.

"It was one of the best moments of my life," the Canadian nework quoted him as saying. "I'm 68 years old and I've never had a moment like it."

Her father said that she had apparently been treated well.

"She was in good spirits, she was in good health," he said, adding that he didn't have any more details on his daughter's release from custody.

Parvaz flew to Syria on April 29 to cover the political protests there for the Al Jazeera news network. But the network lost contact with her.

The Syrian government acknowledged that she was in custody, then on May 11 said Parvaz had been deported to Tehran following her detention in Damascus.

It wasn't clear why she was released. But The New York Times suggested that it might have been part of Iran's attempt to build a better relationship with Qatar:

News of her release emerged a day after Tehran said it was pursuing unspecified information about Ms. Parvaz. It was not clear what considerations had prompted her release, and Iranian officials made no immediate comment on the development.

But IRNA, an official Iranian news agency, said in a separate report on Wednesday that an Iranian envoy had delivered a message from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Qatari ruler, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, seeking closer ties with the Doha government.

Parvaz was born in Iran and has Iranian, U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

Parvaz arrived by plane in Damascus to cover ongoing protests against the Syrian government, but was taken into custody immediately.

Her disappearance coincided with increased hostilities in Syria, where the "Arab Awakening" that has already shaken governments around the region has brought protesters into the street.

Human rights activists report a sharp escalation in arbitrary arrests and unexplained disappearances — including people being plucked from their homes and offices in the middle of the day, according to Associated Press reports. One prominent activist in an Damascus neighborhood was reportedly bundled into a car after being beaten by security officers.

Born in Iran, Parvaz's connection to the Muslim world shaped her reporting while she was with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Shortly after 9/11, she wore the traditional Islamic clothing and wrote about Seattle's reaction to her and her feelings; five years later, she traveled to Iran and issued a series of reports published in the newspaper.

Parvaz reported in Japan for the English edition of the Asahi Shimbun before coming to Seattle, where she worked for The Seattle Times before joining the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She was hired by Al Jazeera in 2010.

The network had carried a photo of Parvaz on the top of its website since she was determined to be missing. A "Free Dorothy Parvaz" Facebook page was launched, and the Twitter hashtag #FreeDorothy was also in use.