and then re-defected back to Iran, has not been seen or heard from in the six months since he flew back to Tehran. Now an opposition website says he is in prison and has been beaten so seriously as to require hospitalization for a week. There is no way to check out anything that was reported on the Iranbriefing.net website, which is based in the United States. The best evidence that something has happened to Amiri is the fact that he has disappeared from view since giving a news conference on his return. The website said family members had reported that Amiri was initially held in a “safe house” in Tehran and allowed to visit his family on weekends. But later, they said, he was locked up in an old military jail, Heshmatieh Prison, where he faced harsh interrogations and beatings.
