Iran releases new video of British navy crew

Iran hit back at claims by the captured British Navy crew of constant psychological pressure during their 13 days of detention by releasing more video clips showing them playing chess and watching television.

The video clips, which were aired briefly on Iran’s state-run Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Alam last night, showed several of the sailors and Royal Marines dressed in tracksuits playing chess and table tennis. In the footage, crew members could be heard laughing and chatting.

Other short clips showed the crew watching soccer on TV and eating at a long dining table that had vases filled with flowers.

The newscaster, who spoke over the beginning of the footage, said the new video proved that “the sailors had complete liberty during their detention, which contradicts what the sailors declared after they arrived in Britain”.

The release of the most recent video footage comes two days after several of the British crew told reporters after they returned home that they had been blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells and tricked into fearing execution while being coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.

They crew members said the eight sailors and seven Marines reported undergoing psychological pressure and being threatened with seven years in prison if they did not say they intruded into Iranian waters.

Iran dismissed the sailors’ news conference as propaganda – just as Britain condemned the crew members’ frequent appearances on Iranian TV during their captivity. Two days before their release, Tehran had pledged not to show more videos of the captured crew.

The crew was captured in the Persian Gulf on March 23 and freed last week by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called their release a gift to Britain. Iran said the British crew was in its waters, but Britain denies this.