He returned to Iran in 1979 after the overthrow of the Shah, but was arrested in 1983 along with other leaders of the Tudeh Party of Iran. In May 1984, after being subjected to barbaric physical and psychological torture in prison, including months of solitary confinement, and without the benefit of being represented by a lawyer, the Islamic republic of Iran presented a broken man to the world, claiming to have made Tabari "convert to Islam". Disbelief about the sincerity of Tabari's conversion has been fed by the fact that after giving a confessional speech to other political prisoners at Evin prison he was asked by the prison warden "to deny outright the rumor that he had cast himself into the role of a `Galileo.`" Tabari gave not a clear denial but a "long convoluted response", and after his "confession" he remained "not only incarcerated but also in total isolation – even from his own family".