A recalcitrant Iran dealt the world and United States of America a blow with the incarceration of the Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi. When the whole world is warming up to the new administration in Washington with a view to starting afresh, Iran is walking away into the cold? Icheoku says, this is not the kind of overture a willing peace partner exhibits. Why should the Iranian regime continue to present a clenched fist when a hand of fellowship has been extended to it by Washington? Even Venezuela's Hugo Chavez understands that it is a new day and things are no longer what they use to be! With the firm handshake between President Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez, one would have expected the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime in Tehran to act in this case, in a way suggestive of a regime desirous to press the reset button with the United States? But no, they jailed a reporter for allegedly spying, after a trial in camera?
Icheoku says, admitted it is hard to teach an old dog a new trick but the henchmen in Tehran should understand that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. They ought to know that the hand of friendship extended by America will not hang out there in perpetuity, should they refuse and not take it now. There is always a span of life for everything as President Barack Obama might not forever retain the support and goodwill of the American people to continue to woo an unwilling suitor? Iranians, show President Obama that there is reason to hope and try, otherwise the America patient might run out and pretty soon too? The Iranians should be very much aware that, should the inevitable occurs and their obstinacy results in a show-down, that they cannot win the ensuing antagonism or confrontation. 
Icheoku says, the proper thing for Iran to do in the spirit of the new quest for friendship with Washington, is not to convict Miss Saberi behind closed doors as the apparent lack of transparency defeats whatever evidence of culpability that may exist. Justice they say, must not only be done but must be seen to be done; and such was not the case under the present advisement. Because of the bamboozled nature of the trial, any resulting sentence should not have been as harsh as eight long years for a young Iranian woman whose future has been greatly compromised by this sentence, assuming she serves it in full. Other alternatives exists for the Iranians which they would have exercised, such as deport Miss Saberi back to the United States, declare Miss Saberi a persona-non-grata in Iran, revoke her Iranian passport, denude her of her Iranian citizenship or to clear all the cloud of illegitimacy hanging over this conviction, conduct her trial in the open so that the world can appreciate the degree of her "covet operations" in Iran? But to simply rail-road her into prison on a trumped-up charge of espionage smacks of a regime which is not prepared to change its repressive ways; or for lack of a better word, smarting for confrontation? As a wise counsel posits, the Iranian regime should beware of what they wish for as they might eventually get it? Roxana Saberi, 31, who shares dual American and Iranian citizenship (daughter of an Iranian father and a Japanese mother), has been studying for her third masters degree and working in Iran for the past six years. The also former Miss North Dakota and a top 10 finalists in Miss America 1998 was arrested in January 2009 for allegedly spying for her naturalised country, the United States of America? Now the Iranians have jailed their daughter for eight long years after convicting her for espionage, in a trial held behind closed doors by Iran's Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court? A trial that could at most, be characterised as a kangaroo trial? It is regrettable that whatever evidence of the alleged espionage was not made public for veracity, despite a possible claim of state security and secrecy? Such was the secrecy of Roxana Saberi's trial that not even her father was allowed to attend his daughter's trial? And this is justice? 
Iranians shifting of the goal-post from the initial accusation of buying alcohol and later of working as a journalist without a valid press card to the final whammy of spying, shows a regime fishing for a reason and desirous of making a confrontational statement? Icheoku says, such attitudinal idiosyncrasy of the Iranian government is unwholesome and simply reflective of a warped doomsday-harbinger, that is both daft and dumb! Iranians should understand that friendship requires sacrifice in the spirit of give and take, geared towards meeting of the minds which their current action does not buttress. It is with this background that Icheoku calls on Iranian government to use this God given opportunity to soften its image and release Roxana Saberi forthwith. The Iranians can ask Miss Saberi to leave Iran if they feel so impassioned, but to imprison this woman for eight long gruelling years, with no apparent convincing evidence of her complicity in an espionage, is not a cordial move especially at this time of a thawing of relations between Tehran and Washington!
Roxana Saberi: Out of Iranian Prison, Into a Soap Opera
ReplyDeleteBuzz Up Send
Email IM Share
Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print Play Video Reuters – US "heartened" by Saberi release
Play Video Video:Out of Jail FOX News Play Video Video:Saberi Released From Jail, Reunited With Parents WCCO Minneapolis AFP – This 2004 National Press Photographers association file image shows US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi, … By NAHID SIAMDOUST / TEHRAN Nahid Siamdoust / Tehran – 48 mins ago
In an unexpectedly swift move, a Tehran court reduced the sentence of Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi and released her from prison on Monday, only a day after she appealed her case in court. Last month, Saberi had been sentenced to eight years imprisonment on charges of spying for the United States, causing tension between the two countries at a time when President Barack Obama had declared his Administration's intention to improve relations with Iran.
Just before the official announcement came, Saberi's parents and lawyers, as well as dozens of reporters, had gathered in front of Tehran's Evin prison in anticipation of her release. Reza Saberi, the reporter's father, was visibly expectant, and said that finally "things were moving on a rational track." The reporter's mother paced in front of the entrance impatiently, at times stopping to stand with her arms akimbo and dropping her head, at others squatting down to sob into a napkin. When the journalist was finally released, she was taken through a back door, out of reporters' view. Later, in front of her home in the north of Tehran, her father said she was in good health and had been taken to a relative's house to rest. He had come to collect a few things for her, he said, and the next days would be spent "preparing her departure from Iran." (See pictures of the contemporary face of Iran.)
Saberi is free to leave Iran, even though her two-year prison term for spying has only been suspended. The only stipulation was that she not commit a criminal act within the next five years. If that requirement is met, the sentence will expire and she will be cleared.
Iranian intelligence officials had been particularly suspicious of a trip Saberi had made to Israel, as well as her relationship with U.S. government officials. "From an intelligence perspective, there were issues that were sensitive, but Saberi was able to convince the judges that there was no intention of espionage whatsoever," said one of her lawyers, Saleh Nikbakht. (See pictures of daily life in Iran.)
Nikbakht and her other lawyer Abdolsamad Khoramshahi told TIME that the turning point in the five-hour appeals court session on Sunday was their argument that Iran and the United States were not at war. Saberi had initially been charged with spying for an enemy country. Nikbakht explained that in 2003, when another journalist and political analyst, Abbas Abdi, was charged with the same crime for publishing a poll that showed 74% of Iranians favored dialogue with the United States, he proved in court that this charge was legally unsound because Iran was not at war with the U.S., a point emphasized by citing a ruling by the Iranian parliament's National Security Commission, which was, most importantly, approved by the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This same argument, Nikbakht said, persuaded the judges that, "from a purely legal point of view, Saberi's actions were free of that crime. There is no basis at all for espionage in her file."
In the end, the court found Saberi guilty based on Article 505 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code, which states, in loose terms, that any person who collects classified information and puts it at the service of "others" with the goal of destabilizing national security is committing a crime. Previously, Saberi had been charged with putting that information at the service of an "enemy country that Iran is at war with," according to Nikbakht. That wording was dropped, reducing her crime.
Due to the national security nature of the case, no one except Saberi herself and her two lawyers were allowed in the closed court on Sunday. One reporter who caught a glimpse of her as she left the court building said Saberi was wearing a black chador, "pale and emaciated." (Saberi had been on a hunger strike last week.) Both her lawyers told TIME the court session was extremely fair, and Nikbakht said, "What has happened is a victory for justice in Iran." (See pictures of the fashion styles of Muslim women from iran to Oman.)
The U.S.-born reporter of Iranian and Japanese descent had become a cause celebre back home in America because of her incarceration and sentencing. A former Miss North Dakota, she studied journalism at Northwestern University before moving to Iran six years ago. Before her press credentials were withdrawn in 2006, Saberi had been a freelance reporter for various media outlets, including the BBC World Service, NPR, and Fox News.
Abdi, the analyst whose case was cited in winning Saberi's release, was surprised by the ruling. (He spent two years in prison before being acquitted.) Said he: "These are all just political games." Without the international pressure, as well as appeals by both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, many suspect, Saberi could still be sitting in prison, like others charged with similar crimes, whose cases have not received similar international attention. Among them is Silva Harotonian, an Iranian-Armenian humanitarian aide worker charged with "plotting a soft revolution."
Even as Saberi's parents rejoiced at her release there was additional drama in front of the prison. Also waiting there was internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, who had published an open letter last month declaring that Saberi was his fiancee. He told TIME that he believed it was in great part because of his endeavors that Saberi was being released so quickly. He said he had a meeting with government and judiciary officials a few days ago, in which he explained to them the importance of Saberi appearing at the opening of his new film on Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, "because she was going to talk about the Persian Gulf. I told them it would be good for Iran." Ghobadi has cited Saberi as a co-writer on his latest film.
There was clear friction between Ghobadi and Saberi's parents, who kept themselves several feet apart from the director. At one point, Ghobadi approached Saberi's visibly shaken mother, but she pushed him away, motioning him away with her hands. After Ghobadi's letter, Reza Saberi announced that he could not confirm Ghobadi as his daughter's fiancee. One source close to the family said they perceive him as taking advantage of her recent newsworthiness to publicize his film, and wonder why he was not speaking out for her before her case attracted such international attention. Ghobadi said he had been ordered to keep silent by sources he could not reveal, and finally broke his silence when he "could no longer hold it."
The most plausible explanation for Saberi's immediate release came from a source close to the case, who asked for anonymity. "The government simply did not want to have this hugely sensationalized and publicized case hovering over it right before the elections. [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad asked [Judiciary Chief Mahmoud Hashemi] Shahroudi to put an end to this," the source said. (Read why Ahmadinejad was intervening in the Saberi case.)
With only about a month left until Iran's presidential elections, as well as a generally positive mood among Iranians for better relations with the administration of President Obama, it appears that Saberi's case had become too much of a liability for Iran. Certainly, her release is an immense relief for her family and friends, but ironically, it also appears to be a relief for the Islamic Republic.
Icheoku congratulates the Iranian authorities for showing good faith by releasing journalist, accused spy, Roxana Saberi! It is a victory for dialogue and another plus for President Barack Obama's chosen part of talk first! For our initial commentary on this, would have been international incident, click: iran let go of roxana saberi
ReplyDelete