Nizar Zakka, the internet freedom activist who spent four years in prison in Iran, told Iran International in an interview that during his time in prison, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s current Minister of Communications, was an interrogator for the Ministry of Intelligence.

Zaka says when he was “a hostage” in Iran, Azari Jahromi was interrogating prisoners on behalf of the Ministry of Intelligence and would make false accusations against innocent people.

Zakka says he has presented all the related information to human rights organizations and told them that Iran’s Minister of Communications hurts the prisoners and interrogates them.

Referring to the recent events in Iran, Zakka said: Jahromi shut down the Internet while the ministers and officials had access to social media. He added that the only thing that the Islamic Republic’s current Minister of Communications knows well is how to take people hostage and interrogate them.

After his release, Zakka announced that he had suffered various types of torture in prison. He was officially invited by the government to attend a conference in Tehran, but he was arrested in Tehran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The US Treasury Department has sanctioned Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s Minister of Communications, for his role in wide-spread censorship of the internet by the regime.