Iran shows video of sailors playing chess, watching TV

Iran has broadcast a video showing the 15 British marines playing chess and watching television during their nearly fortnight-long captivity...

Iran has broadcast a video showing the 15 British marines playing chess and watching television during their nearly fortnight-long captivity, to refute claims by the sailors and marines that they were mistreated.

The new video comes two days after several of the crew told reporters they had been blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells, tricked into fearing execution, and coerced into falsely saying that they had entered Iranian waters.

The video clips, briefly aired on Iran’s state-run Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Alam on Sunday, showed several of the sailors and marines dressed in track

suits playing chess and table tennis. Crew members can also be heard laughing and chatting in the footage. Other short clips showed them watching soccer on TV and eating at a long dining table that had vases filled with flowers on it.

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

The crew reported having been under constant psychological pressure and being threatened with seven years in prison.