Mazyar Ebrahimi, who recently gave an interview to IranWire about his torture in prison and the methods his interrogators used to extract a confession from him, has written to the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), urging the industry to boycott Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

The IBC, an annual media, entertainment and technology trade show, opened its doors in Amsterdam on September 13. According to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) a number of Iranian companies, including IRIB itself, planned to participate in this event, which is held by the private sector.

The IBC boasts that it is "the world's most influential media, entertainment and technology show" and it says last year it attracted more than 55,000 attendees from 150 countries.

Mazyar Ebrahimi was one of several Iranians that the Islamic Republic wrongly accused of assassinating four Iranian nuclear scientists. On a trumped-up charge, he was tortured for five months, during which his foot was broken. He spent 16 months in solitary confinement and was in prison for 26 months before the case was dismissed — but not before he and others were forced to make TV confessions after being tortured. These forced confessions were broadcast by IRIB on Iranian TV.

Ebrahimi believes that Iranian TV must be boycotted because it functions as a tool of repression for the Islamic Republic regime. In a letter to the organizers of the IBC, he urged them to join the campaign to boycott IRIB. Below, IranWire publishes the full text of Ebrahimi’s letter.

Dear Organizers of IBC:

Greetings!

I am Mazyar Ebrahimi. You probably do not know me but I suggest that you should get to know your own customer, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting [IRIB].

I am not the only person who can reveal to you the true face of this customer of yours. Many Iranian citizens have had horrid experiences similar to mine. They forced me to confess to an assassination that I had no part in. I worked as a representative for European and US manufacturers of sound and video equipment and your customer today — Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting — was a customer of mine at the time. But I fell into a bottomless pit of baseless charges because of the corruption at this organization and my competition with another contractor of this organization, and I had to spend 26 months of my life in the most difficult and inhuman conditions.

I want you to know that the organization that has participated in your exhibition might soon order new equipment. Then the equipment offered in your exhibition will be used for inhuman treatment of other [Iranian] citizens. Right now, a woman by the name of Sepideh Gholian is being tortured at Gharchak Prison of Varamin because she has not yielded to her interrogators’ demands. They want her to cooperate with them so that IRIB can make a new documentary about how she was deceived — similar to the one they made about me.

Earlier, I revealed a list of some companies from which IRIB buys equipment. I communicated with them and asked them: Are you aware that your equipment is used in Iran to get forced confessions from political prisoners? Most of them answered that they were unaware of this and said that their dealers might have sold the equipment to Iran. A number of them said they cannot sell or send equipment to Iran because of the sanctions. Others gave similar replies. But I tell you this now: IRIB, which has participated in your exhibition today, might order equipment tomorrow and use them to make another fake documentary.

I only confessed so that they would stop beating me with cables and torturing me. They laid me on a bed and beat me with a cable as hard as they could. I have filed complaints against the Intelligence Ministry for its brutal torture and against IRIB for broadcasting my confessions under torture.

I ask all foreign vendors of audio and video equipment to boycott Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting because selling equipment to this organization is the same as selling them means of torture.

Respectfully Yours,

Mazyar Ebrahimi

Distributer and Dealer of Professional Audio and Video Equipment

Related Coverage:

“I Hear the Voices of the Tortured”, September 17, 2019

Iran’s State TV Must be Held Accountable for Forced Confessions. But How?, September 13, 2019

IranWire Exclusive: Environmental Activists Tortured and Forced to Confess, August 23, 2019

I had two mock executions. I wished they would execute me for real, August 12, 2019

The Judge Threatened to Sentence Us to Death if We Didn’t Confess, August 10, 2019

Iranian TV Aired My Forced Confessions. It Should be Boycotted, August 9, 2019