Sulaimaniya, Iraq
—
Farzat never meant to be a taxi driver.

While he was studying law in Tehran, he dabbled in politics. That’s when his troubles began, he told CNN.

He was arrested and jailed four times over the last nine years, he said, and most recently was facing a charge of “contact with a hostile state.” He denied the charge, which carries a seven-year prison sentence.

Because of his “criminal” record, the university expelled him, he explained.

So, a taxi driver he became, plying the busy streets of Karaj, a city near Tehran and lately the site of intense anti-government protests.

“I saw regime forces firing at the people with live bullets,” he recalled. “The bullets were mainly fired at the belly and downward to the genitals. … I saw blood on the streets and three dead bodies in a drive of 15 minutes.” The most intense firing was on January 8 and 9, he said.