The Latter-Day Iranian Hostage Crisis

Nick Gillespie | August 22, 2007

This continuing story really hasn't gotten enough play:

An Iranian-American scholar recently released from a notorious prison in Iran still faces charges she endangered the country's national security and has no passport with which to travel abroad, her lawyer said Wednesday.

Although Haleh Esfandiari has the legal right to leave the country, no new passport has been issued since authorities seized hers, attorney and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi told The Associated Press.

"The next stage is that a date will be set for the trial. I ... will defend her in court," said Ebadi. "I'm certain that my client is innocent and she must be acquitted of the charges."...

Iran has charged three other Iranian-Americans with security-related offenses: Parnaz Azima, a journalist for U.S.-funded Radio Farda; Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute; and Ali Shakeri, a founding board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, Irvine.

More here.

In 2002, Charles Paul Freund reported on the outrageous case of intellectual Hashem Aghajari as an example of liberal martyrdom in Iran (the charges against Aghajari were eventually cleared in 2005).

Comments

Syloson of Samos|8.22.07 @ 10:40AM|#

The current protests in Burma/Myanmar could also do with some more "play."

|8.22.07 @ 10:42AM|#

Last night on NPR they had a report on this case. Ms. Esfandiari described her arrest as black-masked men kicking in the door and dragging her off to prison.

All I could think of was FBI, DEA, SWAT, and other alphabet-soup agents in the US doing the same thing. It's never good when you hear about "police" actions in Iran and they sound similar to your own country.

|8.22.07 @ 10:47AM|#

Yeah, if half the things SWAT Teams do happened in Russia, we would hear about how undemocratic Putin is.

|8.22.07 @ 10:59AM|#

This has happened before (person kicked out of Iran but their papers were seized), hope Esfandiari doesn't wind up living in Charles de Gaulle airport.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990820.html

Uncaring Person|8.22.07 @ 12:18PM|#

It probably sad or even tragic or something, but... I don't care about some nobody in nowhere-stan.

VM|8.22.07 @ 12:26PM|#

We need to send "Drop the" Grand Chalupa there to single-handedly perform dentistry on all involved!

Grand Chalupa|8.22.07 @ 12:52PM|#

Damn right. I ain't afraid of no stinking Iranians.

thoreau|8.22.07 @ 2:37PM|#

Senor Chalupa is far tougher than any British sailor. He's the envy of everybody in the group home.

VM|8.22.07 @ 2:57PM|#

grins!

Edward|8.22.07 @ 10:59PM|#

"Yeah, if half the things SWAT Teams do happened in Russia, we would hear about how undemocratic Putin is"


I don't really know your background, but I am fairly certain you are pretty clueless when it comes to what "SWAT teams do".

|8.22.07 @ 11:12PM|#

Reactionary religious fundamentalists picking on journalists, peace activists, and urban planners?

Nah, that can't be right...