Amir Abbas Fakhravar as arrested 19 times as a student in Iran. In November 2002, while Fakhravar was still at university, he was sentenced to an eight year sentence in the Evin prison for publishing a criticism of Ayatollah Khamenei. One time he was beaten in front of a court before being thrown into prison. In late April 2006, he arrived in the United States from Dubai where he had been greeted by Richard Perle who interrupted his trip to central Asia in order to meet Fakhravar in a hotel. They had been in touch through a contact since 2003. This past weekend Fakhravar won a conservative journalism award in Florida.