A veteran of the U.S. Navy is suing the Iranian government after officials jailed him for two years for $1 billion, alleging he was held hostage and experienced torture behind bars.
Michael White was beaten, punched, whipped on his feet, deprived of food and drink, and pressured into falsely confessing he was a spy for the U.S. government by his captors in Iran, according to the Thursday filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“Mr. White endured this trauma for nearly two years, never knowing if or when he would be released and reunited with his family, repeatedly promised that his conditions would improve soon, only to be crushed psychologically when they did not,” the lawsuit said.
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The U.S. veteran’s imprisonment was an effort by Iran to extract concessions from the Trump administration and to “manufacture additional leverage for diplomacy” in the aftermath of Iran’s withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal with the United States in 2018, according to the filing.
White, who was released from Iran in March 2020, was lured to the country in the summer of 2018 by a woman he considered his girlfriend to allow Iranian government agents to kidnap him, according to the lawsuit.
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White was released into Swiss custody on medical furlough on March 19, 2020, a day after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Iranian nuclear scientists. In June 2020, he made his way back to the U.S. on a flight from Zurich.
The U.S. Navy has not responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
