The family of a detained Iranian rock climber has spoken up about how he was tortured in one of Iran’s notorious prisons.

Dariush Hossein Shahravi was arrested by plainclothes Iranian security forces on 1st November 2022 when they pulled up alongside the car his employer ‘Majid’, his colleague ‘Reyhane’ and himself had been travelling in.

The athlete was arrested after the vehicle, which contained climbing equipment, was deemed suspicious and Shahravi was transferred to a prison in Tehran.

Iranwire, citing an unnamed family member as its source, has revealed how he was tortured into making a false confession.

His colleague was released the following morning but Shahravi was not.

Instead, his captors asked him questions about the work equipment that was in the car, insulted him and beat him.

There, he was reportedly beaten so much that he asked his family not to visit him, saying: “My body, which was strong, has become such a mess, the condition of the others is much worse. I don’t want you to see me in this state.”

A few days later, some of his family members decided to visit him anyway but they were forbidden from seeing him and were instead told that he was under quarantine and being interrogated and was not allowed to meet any family members.

The family made further enquiries but only found out that Shahravi was being questioned by the Ministry of Information.

During his interrogation, he was told that his employer, Majid, had also been arrested and claimed that all of the items in the car belonged to him.

His captors also told him that his parents had had a stroke and that they knew of all the people he had had sex with and had videos of it. They also made him describe in detail the sexual relationship with his partner before then making him pray, according to Iranwire.

Shahravi was also made to go through “mock executions” several times.

He reportedly told his relatives: “They used to wake me up in the middle of the night, give me food and tell me that we want to execute you. They took me to the gallows. They did this to me several times.”

The worst experience was reportedly the “Death Room”. Shahravi’s entourage have said that after returning from that room, his hands and legs were shaking for hours.

After being tortured, he was made to sign confessions that had been written up for him and in which he admitted to communicating with Israel and foreign media.

The torture continued, with Shahravi reportedly given drugs that caused him to suffer from amnesia.

His colleague Reyhane and his employer Majid were also repeatedly arrested again and subjected to similar treatment.

He was subsequently accused by Iranian prosecutors of being a protest “leader” and of “carrying explosives and dynamite” and “supporting rioters”.

Later, he would be formally indicted with charges of “assembly and collusion with the intention of disrupting internal or external security” and “disturbance and disruption of public order”.

After the indictment, Reyhane was released on bail, but Majid and Shahravi were not.

His family have been attempting to have him released but has so far been unsuccessful.

Iranian forces have been cracking down on waves of civil disorder following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province.

She was on a visit to Tehran when she was arrested by morality police, accused of violating hijab rules on 13th September 2022.

She was allegedly beaten while in custody and spent the following days in a coma in the hospital before succumbing in the ICU on 16th September.

The clinic where she was treated said in a now-deleted social media post that she had been admitted brain-dead.

Alleged medical scans of her skull leaked by hackers showed that she had suffered bone fractures, haemorrhages, and brain oedema.

Independent Iranian media have claimed that Mahsa’s medical records showing a history of heart disease that officials gave as the cause of death were faked by the Iranian government.

Numbers differ regarding how many people have been killed since the protests began.

The ongoing protests in Iran have killed at least 516 people, according to independent estimates.

It is also understood that more than 20,000 people have been arrested.