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Hingham man who spent 41 days in Iran prison breaks his silence

Robin Wright / AP

By Amanda Hoover @amahoover

January 28, 2016

2 minutes to read

Matthew Trevithick, the Hingham native who was released earlier this month from one of Iran’s most notorious prisons after 41 days of detainment, broke his silence this week onAnderson Cooper 360, in a Time magazine essay, and an interview with WBUR’s Here & Now.

Trevithick, 30, went to Iran in September to study Farsi at Tehran University. Before that, he spent seven years living in Iraq and Afghanistan, traveling around the Middle East following his graduation from Boston University in 2008. Since returning home on January 16, he’s been readjusting to life in Hingham and spoke out for the first time this week.

“The domestic political situation completely shifted underneath my feet without my realizing just how quickly it was moving,’’ Trevithick wrote in the first-person Time piece.

While on his way to the airport in December, Trevithick said he was captured and driven to Evin Prison, a political prison, known for detaining intellectuals and artists, that also held Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.

“These things happen, unfortunately, so hopefully I can just talk and explain my way out of it,’’ Trevithick thought while on his way to Evin, he told Here & Now.

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Upon his arrival, however, interrogators didn’t believe that Trevithick was simply a student, instead suggesting that he was sent by the CIA to overthrow the Iranian government.

“Do you know who Jason Rezaian is?’’ they asked him, per his Time essay. “Well, he’s never leaving and neither are you.’’

Trevithick said he was thrown into solitary confinement, where he spent most of his time at Evin. Officials at the prison interrogated and blindfolded him, he said. They shaved his head, roughed him up, and played mind games with him, according to his essay. He exercised to pass the time, losing 13 pounds by the end of his stay.

On the 41st day, Trevithick was asked to sign a form. Without explanation, he said he was driven to the airport, free to return to the U.S.

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While Trevithick’s release came the same day as a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange that saw four other Americans come home, his was an independent incident.

His imprisonment is a reminder that while sanctions have been lifted, the relationship between the two nations remains tense, he said.

“Iran, as it’s discovering I think, cannot change 36 years of behavior and at times intense or at times light xenophobia,’’ he told Here & Now. “You can’t turn that on a dime. While they may say they can, and ‘Oh, we’re open now for business and everyone can come,’ to expect radical changes in the way Iran conducts itself and conducts its affairs I think is premature.’’