WASHINGTON – Michael White had just arrived at a grim Iranian prison when a curious fellow inmate, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the yard to chat.
The American didn’t reveal much at first, but it was the beginning of an unlikely friendship between White, a Navy veteran imprisoned on espionage charges he said were unfounded, and Mahdi Vatankhah, a young Iranian political activist whose positions on issues social networks had attracted his attention. the anger of the government.
As the men connected behind bars over a shared interest in politics and human rights, they developed a bond that proved vital to both.
Vatankhah, while in custody and after his release, assisted White by providing White’s mother with crucial first-hand accounts of her son’s condition in prison and passing on letters that White had written while he was locked up.
Once freed, White did not forget.
This year he successfully pushed for Vatankhah to be admitted to the United States, allowing the men to meet last spring inside a Los Angeles airport, something neither of them could have imagined when they met in prison years earlier.
Iranian political activist Mahdi Vatankhah pauses to take photographs at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles.AP
“He risked his life to get the information out of me when I was in prison in Iran. He really did it,” White said in an interview alongside Vatankhah. “I told him I would do everything in my power to bring him here because I felt, first, that it would be for his safety in his own life. And I also felt like I could get a great contributing member of society here.”
This year, White was granted permission for Vatankhah to live temporarily in the United States under a government program known as humanitarian parole, which allows entry of people for urgent humanitarian reasons or if there is a significant public benefit.
Vatankhah told the AP that he had dreamed of coming to the United States for as long as he could remember. When he landed, “it was like the best moment of my life. “My whole life changed.”
Michael White, a Navy veteran who was imprisoned in Iran for several years on espionage charges, right, hugs Michael’s former prison mate and Iranian political activist Mahdi Vatankhah.AP
White, 50, a Southern California native who spent 13 years in the Navy, was arrested in Iran in 2018 after traveling to the country to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman he met online.
He was jailed on several charges, including espionage accusations that he believes are false, as well as accusations of insulting Iran’s supreme leader.
He endured what he says was torture and sexual abuse, an ordeal he documented in a handwritten diary he kept secret behind bars, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in what the U.S. government has called a detention. unfair.
Vatankhah, now 24, said he had been in and out of prison since he was a teenager due to his involvement in left-wing causes and vocal criticism of the Iranian government, including through protests, social media posts and newspaper articles. university students.
He met White in 2018 after one of those arrests when Vatankhah faced accusations of spreading propaganda against the government in Tehran.
Michael White, Mahdi Vatankhah and Jonathan Franks, a US consultant for families of American hostages and detainees, leave a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.AP
Although Vatankhah was later released, he was arrested again, this time ending up in the same cell as White in Iran’s Mashhad prison.
Over the course of their friendship, Vatankhah helped White navigate his incarceration and better understand the justice system, serving as an interpreter to help him communicate with guards and inmates. In early 2020, while Vatankhah was on leave, he also became a vital conduit to the outside world for White.
Using the contact information White had provided him, Vatankhah contacted Jonathan Franks, a US-based consultant for families of American hostages and detainees who was working on White’s case and later helped spearhead the parole process. humanitarian for Vatankhah. He also spoke to White’s mother and smuggled out White’s letters.
Vatankhah, while in custody and after his release, assisted White by providing White’s mother with crucial first-hand accounts of her son’s condition in prison and passing on letters that White had written while he was locked up.
The detailed information about White, his condition and his health (he was suffering from cancer and COVID-19 in prison) came at a crucial time, providing a kind of proof of life at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran due to an attack with American drones that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Expeditionary Force.
White was freed in a prisoner swap in June 2020, exchanged for an American-Iranian doctor imprisoned in the United States for violating US sanctions laws. Vatankhah, released the same year, arrived in Türkiye.
White argued in his March application on behalf of Vatankhah that his friend met the criteria for humanitarian parole because, despite having moved to Turkey, he continued to face harassment due to his political views. Vatankhah wrote in his own petition that the situation in Turkey was not safe for him. He noted that Turkish police had raided his home and that he remained at risk of being deported to Iran.
White successfully advocated for Vatankhhah’s admission to the United States. AP
Paris Etemadi Scott, a California attorney who worked with White and Vatankhah and filed the humanitarian parole request on the Iranian’s behalf, said Vatankhah’s assistance to an American — a veteran, no less — enhanced the legitimacy and urgency of his request because it contributed to the possibility of Vatankhah facing imminent harm.
While many applicants do not have significant supporting documentation, “Mahdi had this astonishing amount of evidence to prove that he was, in fact, imprisoned over and over again,” he said.
A State Department spokesperson said in a statement that the office of the department’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs had worked hard to secure White’s release in 2020 and, after learning of Vatankhah’s case, “worked hand in hand with multiple partners in the United States”. government,” including the White House National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security, to ensure his arrival in the United States.
Vatankhah now lives in San Diego, where White is from. Vatankhah said his humanitarian parole is valid for one year, but that he has already requested asylum, which would allow him to remain in the United States. He obtained a work permit and found work as a caregiver.
He also enjoys the freedom to share his political opinions freely without fear of retaliation.
“I like to express my ideas here where I can. “I can continue to use my freedom to speak out against the Iranian regime.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn