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Freed British Sailors Say Their Confessions Were Coerced
[Los Angeles Times] Kim Murphy - On Friday, the British sailors and marines who spent 13 days in an Iranian jail said that they were blindfolded and threatened into fabricating their confessions. Several told of being locked in isolation for days and said they were threatened with seven years in prison if they did not admit entering Iranian waters. "When we first went to prison, we were put up against a wall, hands bound, blindfolded, and there were people cocking weapons in the background," Lt. Felix Carman said at a news conference with six other former captives. "We were not prepared to fight a heavily armed force who, it is our impression, came out deliberately into Iraqi waters to take us prisoner," said Marine Capt. Chris Air. He said all the navigation equipment they had on board during the incident showed without doubt that they were 1.7 miles inside "internationally recognized Iraqi territorial waters."