"Iran is terrible," Lherbier said, "because you don't know who decides." THE FRENCH MAN SAYS

Ex-prisoner Recalls Iran Ordeal : July 17, 2007 Los Angeles Times Borzou Daragahi
Read his full account here :
http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2007&m=07&d=17&a=4

Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- "You're free!" the cell leader at Evin prison told the inmate. "Get your stuff together." Stephane Lherbier dared not trust them. Lherbier, a 34-year-old Frenchman and operator of a charter boat, accidentally had wandered into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf during a fishing trip. For that, he had been locked up for 15 months in Iran, separated from his wife, Veronique, and their 3-year-old, Lola. Repeatedly, authorities had told him he was about to be released, only to dash his hopes in what he considered a form of psychological torture. Court officers hustled him through quickie trials. Intelligence officers cloaked in darkness blindfolded him and subjected him to prolonged interrogations. He cried and begged for better treatment. Instead he found himself behind the giant gates of Evin, an imposing stone compound that has loomed large in the imaginations of Iranians since it was built by Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi more than 60 years ago. An unknown number of Iranian political dissenters and at least three Iranian Americans seized by the government reside in Evin prison. Lherbier's account of his time there, provided in lengthy interviews and corroborated by Western diplomats in Tehran, gives a rare look at one of the world's most mysterious legal systems and the web of interrogation and imprisonment surrounding it. Iranian officials insist the country's record on prisons and adherence to human rights standards has improved markedly in the last few decades. They note that Lherbier was allowed a weeklong break from prison in the middle of his sentence.