A US judge has ordered Iran to pay $36 million to a US-Iran dual national who was whipped, beaten and threatened with rape during attempts to torture her into confessing membership of the CIA at the country’s notorious Evin jail.

Asfaneh Azadeh, a businesswoman based in the UAE, spent 114 days at the prison in 2012 under brutal conditions and was on several occasions made to believe she was about to face a firing squad, according to US court papers.

The case – which was not contested by the clerical regime – followed some 100 US court judgments against Iran and its proxies for terrorism over the last 20 years, according to US lawyer Stuart Newberger who has fought a number of cases involving victims of state-sponsored violence.

The businesswoman, 49, was living in Dubai when she was arrested at Tehran’s international airport after travelling to meet her Iran-based fiancé to finalise their wedding plans, according to court papers seen by The National.

She was taken to Evin prison where she was accused of working for the CIA to foment anti-regime activities. At least nine US-Iranian dual nationals have been detained and falsely accused of espionage in the last decade, Hadi Ghaemi, director of the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, told the court.

Ms Azadeh was interrogated every day for six weeks, pushed down a flight of stairs and left with a dislocated shoulder. She was whipped by one jailer who told her “he enjoyed seeing her suffer,” according to court documents. At one point she was falsely told that her mother, who lived in Iran, had died. Her fiancé was also detained.

Source » thenational