Book review: Despair and confusion in confinement

During Bernard Phelan’s first night in an Iranian interrogation centre, he was awoken by the sound of screams. In the corridor outside his cell, a man was being beaten with a truncheon.

As the blows continued, Phelan could hear the deep-voiced guard shout as the prisoner’s shrieks yielded to desperate grunts. 

The Irishman pressed his hands against his ears to block out the assault, but the sounds filled his head.

You Will Die In Prison is Phelan’s gripping, unvarnished account of his 222 days as a state hostage in Iran. 

Originally from Tipperary, he was visiting the north-eastern Iranian city of Mashhad in October 2022 when he was arrested and accused of sending information to an enemy state.

The author’s visit to the country coincided with nationwide protests demanding the overthrow of the government. 

These were sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, three days after the 22-year-old was arrested by the morality police for “improperly” wearing her hijab.

Phelan lives in Paris and works as a tourism consultant. 

The 64-year-old obtained French nationality in 2004 when he entered a civil union with his partner, Roland.

After Phelan’s interrogation, he was sent to a section of Mashhad prison for inmates facing the death sentence. It is known as Satan’s Block.

You Will Die In Prison is a bruising record of the insidious indignities of Phelan’s incarceration. Allowed to leave his cold cell for just two-and-a-half hours out of every 24, his only refuge was sleep. 

The Irish-French national — who has HIV and a heart condition — spent most days in bed, fully dressed, frequently turning towards the wall to cry.

As hot water bottles were deemed potential weapons, Phelan filled Coca-Cola and Sprite bottles with hot water to help him stay warm. 

His most difficult day was November 24, his dad’s 97th birthday. He became extremely anxious about ever seeing his father alive again.

In January 2023, Phelan was blindfolded, handcuffed, and shackles were placed on his feet before he was transported, accompanied by guards with machine guns, to court. 

Accused of spying, he was instructed to sign a document written only in Farsi.

When he refused, Phelan was led from the courtroom and the judge called after him: “You will die in prison.” Later, he received a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Protesting at his incarceration, the author embarked on a hunger strike.

He stopped two weeks later only because his father, communicating through a diplomat, pleaded with him to end it.

Phelan’s contention that he was a pawn in a “grisly human chess game” was ultimately vindicated.

The Iranian authorities used photos that Phelan had taken on his phone of policemen and a recording of a street demonstration as the basis for their trumped-up charges against him.

However, when he was released on May 11, 2023, it was in exchange for an Iranian prisoner in a Belgian jail.

Phelan has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and experiences suicidal thoughts.

It’s no criticism of the book to acknowledge it doesn’t emulate the artistry of Brian Keenan’s An Evil Cradling, the Belfast man’s account of his captivity in Beirut.

Presented in a diary format (using dictated notes of his experiences) and written in the present tense, this memoir chillingly evokes Phelan’s sense of despair and confusion as a political hostage of one of the world’s most repressive regimes, thousands of miles from home and never knowing when his ordeal would end.

Spiked with flashes of gallows humour, You Will Die In Prison is a taut chronicle of vulnerability, defiance, and, most of all, a ferocious resilience.