After Mr. Batebi was rearrested in 2006, the harshest treatment stopped. But he was sometimes forced to watch his friends being tormented. Last year, after Mr. Batebi suffered what was probably a stroke and several seizures, he was released for medical treatment.

In March, he was ordered to return to prison. He knew that supporters wanted him to keep up the fight from behind bars, but he was worn out. “I couldn’t do more than I had,” he said. “Everyone needs a life.”

An Underground Railroad

On a Yahoo chat site, on March 13, Mr. Batebi contacted Ms. Mazahery, the lawyer, who he knew had helped other Iranians get into the United States. At the same time, through a connection made in prison, Mr. Batebi sought help from the underground Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, which soon directed him to Argentine Square in Tehran.

To his surprise, his Kurdish helpers  volunteers whose real names he never learned  said he had to leave immediately, taking advantage of the authorities’ lax attention during the Iranian New Year holidays. Carrying only a backpack containing his Dell laptop computer, a camera and a pocket-size video recorder, he retrieved some money from an A.T.M. and climbed into the strangers’ car.

The next two days were a blur, he said, as he was driven in a series of cars on a circuitous route to the northwestern border with Iraq, a straight-line distance of about 300 miles. Once, his ride was with a family. Another time, it was with a mother and her baby. A third time, he was directed to board a bus.

With many precautions, the Kurdish underground railroad moved him to the border  he will not say exactly where. Then a new five-man team took over.

For a day and a half, with burros carrying supplies, they moved along the border, which was patrolled by guards and protected by land mines. One of the escorts walked ahead to ensure that the way was clear, Mr. Batebi said.