Dorothy Parvaz Speaks Out About Detention In Iran And Syria (VIDEO)

Dorothy Parvaz, the Al Jazeera reporter who was detained for 19 days in Syria and Iran, spoke to Al Jazeera English about her time in detention the day after being freed and flown back to Al Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar.

Parvaz was detained in Syria after entering the country in early May to report on the ongoing protests there. Speaking on Wednesday, she said that Syrian authorities had initially captured her and accused her of being an Israeli spy. When they found out that she worked for Al Jazeera, things only got worse. Her employer was viewed as a "huge problem" by the Syrians, she said.

Parvaz was detained in various cells, where she said she heard brutal interrogations taking place.

"The beatings I heard around the clock were savage," she said. "...I heard...these young men, they sounded very young, they sounded in their late teens and early twenties, being beaten so harshly, and their voices were so hoarse. I don't know what kind of answers they expected."

After some time in Syria, Parvaz said she was taken "kicking and screaming" onto a plane and sent to Iran. (She holds Iranian, American and Canadian citizenship.) In Iran, she said she was treated "very well, fairly and according to law." From there, she was released.