Mehdi Karroubi, a leader of Iran's opposition Green Movement Photo: AP
It wasn't until the regime thugs had finished beating him and the 50 or so other young men they had rounded up that they checked his identity papers.
Then, when they realised that Ali Karroubi, 36, was the son of Mehdi Karroubi, a leader of Iran's opposition Green Movement, they started beating him again - this time with sticks and batons.
"When they recognised who my brother was, the militia tried to punish him so badly," said Mohammed Taghi Karroubi, the reformist politician's eldest son.
"His wrist was fractured, he received so many lashes on his back and legs and his internal bleeding was so bad he was vomiting up blood. He was tortured by the basij and the police for five or six hours before they released him."
His account to The Sunday Telegraph provides a rare insight into the workings of the Green Movement, after it has survived weeks of intimidation at the hands of the regime. To send a brutal message some imprisoned protesters were even hanged before Thursday's rallies.
The day is a key one in the Iranian calendar, when the government demonstrates its popular strength on the 31st anniversary of the Islamic republic's founding. The opposition had also planned its own show of strength.
But the brutality, and a massive police presence, were effective; the opposition's attempts to disrupt the rallies in Tehran failed, and this weekend the Green Movement was left to lick its wounds.
Even before they beat his son, the security forces had already attacked Mehdi Karroubi himself at a demonstration earlier in the day.
Before he turned opposition leader, Mr Karroubi had been a highly respected pillar of the Islamic revolution. He was a former prisoner of the Shah and disciple of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then a speaker of the parliament.
But by attacking such an esteemed figure, and then systematically beating his son over several brutal hours, the security forces raised the stakes in the political battle sweeping Iran - and displayed the regime's contempt for the opposition.
Nobody believes that the hostility protesters feel for the regime is any less. But so successful were its brutal tactics in stifling the latest wave of protests that the Green Movement is now being forced to rethink its strategy.
In a message relayed through his son, Mehdi Karroubi told The Sunday Telegraph that he would soon discuss new plans with the other main opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi.
"Mr Mousavi and I will have a meeting in the near future and will let the people know about our strategy and work," he said.
"The meeting might be sometime this week."
Supporters of the Green Movement had hoped to join official celebrations for the anniversary of the revolution and prove to the regime that they were too numerous for their views to be ignored. They gathered in a central square in Tehran in defiance of the security forces to voice their demands for new elections and the release of all political prisoners.
Instead of being able to peacefully chant their slogans, however, they were confronted by row upon row of riot police, who used volleys of teargas canisters and baton charges to beat them back.
As soon as Mehdi Karroubi arrived at the demonstration, his entourage was charged by about 50 stick-wielding militiamen. When he clambered into a car to escape, his assailants smashed the windows and hurled a teargas canister inside, stinging the elderly cleric's eyes and lungs.
"I was nearby with my eight-year-old girl Sara because I thought it would be a peaceful demonstration," said Mohammed Taghi Karroubi, a lawyer with a PhD in human rights from Hull University.
"But the security men started attacking people and I realised it was not a good place for my daughter."
His father Mehdi Karroubi was not the only opposition leader to be attacked at the demonstrations marking the anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main reformist candidate for president last summer, was prevented from joining his supporters, and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, was struck by militiamen.
Hanieh, a single mother who wrote a protest diary for The Sunday Telegraph during the weeks of demonstrations last summer, witnessed some of the violence at first hand. She was disappointed by the organisation of the protest.
"The planning for this one was really poor," she said. "When we reached the square it was very busy and there were some people chanting slogans. The police had parked buses on the sides and were arresting those who were chanting and forcing them onto the buses. They were beating the rest with thick electric cables and batons."
In recent weeks, the opposition's main tactic has been to hijack officially sanctioned rallies for its own purposes. Its supporters have gatecrashed a national day of support for Palestinians, the Ashura religious holiday and the funeral of Ayatollah Montazeri.
But the next likely flashpoint will come on March 16 when Iranians celebrate the last Tuesday evening of the Persian calendar, Chaharshambe Suri, with fireworks and bonfires.
These celebrations, which pre-date the arrival of Islam, might be hugely popular among young Iranians but they are anathema to the religious authorities and regularly lead to clashes between young people and the security forces.
Because they are illegal, however, it is impossible for the opposition leaders to ask their supporters to attend without risking arrest themselves.
"At the moment there is no official rally we are asking the people to attend," said Mehdi Karroubi, speaking through his son Mohammed. "We will ask to have a peaceful demonstration in order to show the people's support for our movement. If they don't let us have that, we will have to try different methods to talk and educate the people about the peace movement and extend it to the whole country."
Opposition leaders outside Iran, however, are quick to predict that the protests will continue.
"What we have in front of us is the national day of Chaharshambe Suri," said Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a celebrated Iranian filmmaker and unofficial opposition spokesman in Paris. "It is a day the regime is normally afraid of because the younger people play with fire in every part of the city. We hope this day will be a very big event."
To go by the regime's public pronouncements, demonstrations on Chaharshambe Suri pose little threat. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described last week's events as "a wake-up call to domestic enemies and deceived groups who claim to represent the people".
Yet opposition figures say the hundreds of thousands of their supporters who marched through Tehran last summer in protest at the regime are still ready to defy the security forces.
"Some tactics now need to change because the people have given enough martyrs and been abused enough," said Mr Makhmalbaf, who shared a prison cell with Ayatollah Khamenei's brother before the revolution. "But the real leaders are the young people in every neighbourhood who show people what to do after virtual meetings on the internet."
There is no record of how many people were arrested last week - estimates range from hundreds to thousands.
"We are not so much as worried about my brother as about all the other people who were arrested," said Mohammed Taghi Karroubi. "We want to show how dangerous it is for the other detainees who don't have high connections. Our constitution says it is not possible to detain somebody for more than 24 hours without taking them to court. But now they detain people six months without doing so."
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