Kaveh Afrasiabi, holding a police property form that he says is proof of his arrest.
An Iranian-American university professor and senior political analyst, Kaveh Afrasiabi, has detailed US police brutality against him while in custody in Cambridge.
Speaking to Press TV in an exclusive interview on Thurday, Afrasiabi said that police denied him his constitutional rights and racially discriminated against him.
"They put me alone in van and they drove in full speed and [suddenly] they came to a full stop. And then I went flying into a metal shield and my head smashed against the bar. I was taken by an ambulance to a hospital, where I was diagnosed with severe head concussion and was treated," Afrasiabi told Press TV on Thursday.
Afrasiabi said his arrest was over an un-paid driving ticket dating back more than two decades ago.
"The Cambridge police gave me a racist attitude, asked for my [drivers] license and arrested me on the spot on a flimsy basis that some 25 years ago I did not pay a driving violation fine -- which I have [paid]," he said.
The American-Iranian Friendship Committee also confirmed that Afrasiabi had been the victim of police brutality, accusing US law enforcement officers of injuring the Iranian-American academic while in custody in Cambridge.
Afrasiabi also accused police of denying his constitutional right to contact his family or his lawyer.
"I asked them (police) for the right to make a phone call so that I could have a family member or a lawyer to come. They denied that to me," he said.
Afrasiabi says the Cambridge police are trying to wipe out his arrest record.
"I called the Cambridge mayor's office complaining and they contacted me today (Thursday), telling me that the Cambridge police deny they ever arrested me, and that there are no record of my arrest by the Cambridge police."
"They (police) are so embarrassed by what they did to that they now try to wipe out the record, but I have here the documents that I was in their custody and they released me and there is no way they can get away with that," Afrasiabi said.
The Iranian-American academic said that he will file a complaint against the Cambridge police's misconduct at the attorney general's office.
"I'm going to complain to the attorney general's office about the fact that they endangered my life and the doctor said that it's miracle that I did not have internal bleeding otherwise I would have been in a coma," he said.
Afrasiabi has taught political science at Tehran University, Boston University, and Bentley College. He has also been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, UC Berkeley and Binghamton University.
The Iranian professor, who is a former consultant to the UN program of Dialogue Among Civilizations, has appeared on numerous television talk shows, including ones on Press TV, CNN, MSNBC and Al-Jazeera. He has also worked as a consultant to CBS's 60 Minutes program.
DB/MMN