U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, detained in Iran since July 2018 on a 10-year sentence, has detailed prison conditions to his family, saying he has attempted suicide, CNN reports.
"There's another thing I didn't tell you, mom: I didn't know they were ever going to let me out, I tried to hang myself there," White, who was 46 at the time of his arrest for allegedly criticizing Iran's supreme leader, said in phone call audio, reportedly from December, broadcast by CNN.
"I wanted to kill myself. I was that distraught."
White, who is a Trump supporter, according to the report, says impeachment is hurting his chances of getting out, his mother, Joanne White, told CNN.
"Let's put the blame where it belongs, on Iran," White said in the call audio on CNN, which reported he is the first American to be detained in Iran during the Trump administration.
Michael White's mother told CNN her son has had his feet whipped, has had a gun pointed to his head and has to allegedly pay for his own food, with money he does not have, while in prison.
"They have done everything to press me; they really have," White said "I mean, they put me in isolation. They, like I said, subjected me to torture conditions. Deprivation of food and water numerous times.
"I was going crazy. I mean, this place is a junk hole. Right now, I am in a cell that's overcrowded big time."
Michael White added Iran has concocted allegations of him being a U.S. spy.
"I went to this appellate court thing supposedly, and they had a phony hearing," he said in the CNN audio. "They they bring back up allegations of spying that they said before. I'm like 'what the hell these guys doing?' They had zero evidence. They made stuff up."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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