Houshang Bouzari

Houshang Bouzari

"In June 1993, Mr Bouzari, an adviser to Iran's oil minister in the 1980s, was arrested by the Iranian government during a business trip to Iran. Mr Bouzari spent more than eight months in prison during which period he was tortured and threatened with execution. His wife paid $3 million to Iran's Ministry of Information to secure his release. Mr Bouzari escaped Iran in July 1994 and settled in Canada in 1998. Mr Bouzari has testified he was tortured because he'd refused to pay a $50 million bribe demanded by Mehdi Hashemi. As a result of his experiences Bouzari founded the International Committee against Torture (InCAT.org), headquartered in Toronto, Canada. InCAT aims to provide legal aid for victims of torture, and to pursue justice in a court of law by holding the perpetrators and violating states responsible for their actions."


 * Director, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center