Roxana Saberi blogburst
US journalist Roxana Saberi turns 32 today in an Iranian prison. After an hour-long trial, she was sentenced to eight years behind bars for “espionage.” She was initially told she was arrested for buying bootleg wine, and then because she was working as a journalist without a license. She’s now on day five of a hunger strike. Today, one of her defense lawyers was denied access to her.
Saberi is a former North Dakota beauty queen educated at Oxford and Northwestern with an extraordinary background. Here’s some of her work. Her home state newspaper, the Grand Forks Herald, weighs in:
Iran’s imprisonment of Roxana Saberi is an international outrage, a flagrant violation of the norms of civilized conduct. But it should come as no surprise.
The Iranian government has shown its disregard for those norms before. This latest example should give great pause to the Obama administration, which came in to office plainly willing to give Iran the benefit of the doubt — and now has seen Iran repudiate that gesture as it has so many before, with cynicism and contempt.
Saberi, imprisoned since January, has been convicted of spying, news stories reported Saturday. Now, whenever these kinds of accusations surface, there’s always a chance that the accused is guilty and was caught in the act.
But in this case, that chance seems vanishingly small. There are ways to credibly accuse and convict someone of espionage, but the Iranian court system has not employed them. Just the opposite: It has mocked those norms by disregarding their substance, while using the norms’ vocabulary — “trial,” “attorney,” “defense” and so on — to give the government’s actions a patina of justice.
Here is all one needs to know about justice as it seems to be practiced in modern Iran. The quote is from a story in Sunday’s New York Times:
“Ms. Saberi’s father, Reza Saberi, who came to Tehran two weeks ago from Fargo, N.D., to secure her release, said Sunday that neither she nor her lawyer was aware that the trial was taking place last Monday until after it was under way.
“‘The lawyer was only told to go meet Roxana last Monday,’ he said in a telephone interview. ‘No one knew that they were trying her. Roxana found out 15 minutes into the session that she was being tried.
“‘None of them, neither Roxana nor the lawyer, were ready to defend her.’
“Mr. Saberi said that the trial took less than an hour as he waited outside the courtroom, believing that the lawyer was only meeting his daughter in the presence of the judge.”
So: Saberi didn’t know she was on trial until after the trial started. She met her defense lawyer the very day of her “trial.” Neither Saberi nor her lawyer had any time whatsoever to prepare her defense.
And the proceedings took less than an hour.
No conviction by such a kangaroo court can be believed.
She is not alone:
A young blogger arrested in Iran for allegedly insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Internet posting has died in prison, his attorney said Friday. The blogger had been jailed for allegedly insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an internet posting.
The blogger had been jailed for allegedly insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an internet posting.
Attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said Omid Mir Sayafi, reported to be in his 20s, died in Evin prison, which is located in Tehran and known for its wing that holds political prisoners.
Dadkhah said a fellow inmate, Dr. Hessam Firouzi, called him Wednesday night with the news — and said he believed Sayafi would have lived if he received proper medical care.
Dadkhah said Firouzi, an imprisoned human-rights activist, said that he carried a semi-conscious Sayafi to a prison doctor but that he didn’t receive the care he needed…Sayafi was first arrested in April, then released for 41 days before being arrested again. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for comments on a blog that his lawyer argued was intended only for a few friends to read.
And:
Seven other journalists and two cyber-dissidents are currently held in Iran.
They include Mohammad Sadegh Kabodvand, who has been in prison since July 2007. On Oct. 23 a Tehran appeal court upheld his 11-year jail sentence for creating a human rights organization in Kurdistan.
Kabodvand was the winner of the U.K. Press Gazette’s British Press Awards in the “International journalist of the year” category, announced on March 31. The judges cited his work on behalf of human rights.
Mohammad Hassin Falahieh Zadeh, a journalist who worked for the Arabic-language service of state-owned TV station Al-Alam was arrested in November 2006 on a spying charge and was sentenced on April 29, 2007 to three years in prison and a fine equivalent to twice all that he ever earned as a journalist. He has been held in solitary confinement.
Kurdish journalist and teacher Massoud Kurdpoor was sentenced to a year in prison on Oct. 15, 2008 on a charge of “anti-government propaganda in interviews for foreign and enemy news media.”
Online journalist and cleric Mojtaba Lotfi was arrested on Oct. 8, 2008 in Qom for posting online a sermon by Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, a well-known opponent of Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The sermon criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying Iran was “the world’s freest country.” A special court for the clergy sentenced him on Nov. 29 to four years in prison and five years of banishment from the city.
Kaveh Javanmard of the weekly Karfto was transferred to Sanandaj prison at the end of last month after being held for two years in the northern city of Maragheh, far from where his family lives.
Bahman Totonchi, a former Karfto contributor, has been held since Nov. 18, 2008 in Sanandaj prison, where he still has not been formally charged.
Reporters Without Borders is still without any news of blogger Hossein Derakhshan, who has been held in an unknown location since Nov 1, 2008.
If you’ve got a blog, please let your readers know what’s happening today on Roxana Saberi’s birthday. The Free Roxana website is here.
This is definitely a moment for bloggers from all sides of the political spectrum to rally. Here’s a blog rally in support of Saberi and others who have dared to express their thoughts freely only to be imprisoned, abused, or killed.
See what others have said
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Trackbacks
- Roxana Saberi Blogburst « Vets On The Watch
- Israel to Obama: Solve Iran, or Else | NEOAVATARA
- What A TangledWeb They Weave « Vets On The Watch
- Bookworm Room » Roxana Saberi
- Founding Bloggers
- Attention, Bloggers: US journalist Roxana Saberi Turns 32 Today in Iranian Prison « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Free Roxana Saberi! | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Roxana Saberi Gets 8 Years In Iran:Update on Roxana she is on a Hunger Strike « Dianej’s Weblog
- Roxana Saberi blogburst « The Daley Gator
- Blog Rally: April 26th is imprisoned journalist Roxana Saberi’s birthday « Danishova
- Roxana Saberi Blogburst « Nice Deb
- Roxana Saberi Sentence to Eight Years in Iranian Prison « Desertdweller’s Blog
- Conservatism with Heart
- The Woman Iran Fears « Peace and Freedom Promises
- A False Messiah « Scott’s Slant on Politics
- Roxana Saberi Blogburst « Grand Rants
- A Prisoner’s Birthday « The Underground Conservative
- Conservatism with Heart
- Roxana Saberi Blogburst; She is 32 Today, trapped in the Iranian “Judicial” System « Just Americans Making Ethical Statements Weblog
- The Baughers » Roxana Saberi held in Iranian Prision
- Tel-Chai Nation
- Roxana Saberi: Iranian Spy or American Journalist in Iran? » Right Pundits
- Free Roxana Saberi | PowerTowneDistro.com
- Freedom of the Press (or lack thereof) in Iran « The Legal Satyricon
- Roxana Saberi Blogburst; She is 32 Today, trapped in the Iranian “Judicial” System | New World News
- Hallelujah, Journalist Roxana Saberi Freed from Iranian Prison « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room » SUNDAY ROUNDUP
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At the New York Times, Roger Cohen has been one of the Iranian government’s biggest defenders. He has emotionally defended Khamani and even said Ahmedinejad is a bit vocal but a fellow we should deal with. Cohen even said that young Iranians were just like young Americans, surfing the internet and having a jolly good time. I wonder if Cohen thinks in the US, a young journalist would be spirited off to prison after a show trial. I suppose it is too much to expect an apologist for an antiSemitic, antiAmerican regime to admit he was wrong. All the more reason to stop purchasing the NY Times (in case anyone still does that).
Roger who?
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We can thank ex President Jimmy Carter and his liberal buddies for the radical Iranian government’s existence. The ayatollahs stayed out of Iran when the Shah and his secret police abused them.
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Now the Iranian government uses the same prison and tactics against their own people and any convenient foreign reporters or troublemakers.
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The Mullahs know weakness and fear when they see it. President Peanut failed their test–he let Iran kidnap our diplomats for 444 days without charging them a really painful price. The obvious strategy would have been a full naval, railroad, and road blockade of Iran. And bombing of their infrastructure–oil fields, power plants, port facilities, Ayatollah houses, etc. Jimmuh Carter just tried some crying to the U.N. and some SOFT POWER diplomacy–which failed.
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The Iranian government knew President Ronald Reagan would clean their country’s clock as soon as he took office. The hostages were released on that day.
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The Israeli raid on Entebbe airport to free the Jewish hostages is the model for how to take effective action. One week for military planning while diplomatic approaches are tried. A second week to practice the plan–which goes into action a week later if the hostages haven’t been released.
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The lady reporter was stupid to think the Iranian government would not come after her. American citizenship means nothing unless the U.S.A. is prepared to sock it to the enemy.
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Maybe our brilliant Secretary of State–Hillary Clinton–can apply some SMART POWER. I vote for some Ronald Reagan REAL POWER instead. But the Messiah will just do another appeasement tour in the area. Like Yogi said, “Deja vu all over again!”
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John Bibb
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As might be expected, the “Iranians” know when the US has a sap in the White House.
And they they advertise their upper hand by attacking and kidnapping American citizens.
This will be much like the Dhimmi Kharter fiasco, only worse. There’s no Ronald Reagan scheduled to appear in a couple of hundred days.
Those girls are in deep yoghurt.
Everybody who voted for B.O. should do an act of penance for every day those girls are in Persian hands.
..and liberals want us in a ‘one-world’ government with THESE jokers???
And guess what the British expert says?
I honestly think that us Brits are a bunch of useless whiners and we’ve lost all credibility in the international arena. I’d hoped that the way we responded to Iran when the held our sailors and marines hostage was a one off. I guess I was overly optimistic.
The roll over and beg for mercy approach does not work. Don’t let the US become like Britain!
Since Iran doesnt have any gays… he would simply cease to exist once he crossed the border. Or then it could be possible that maybe he couldnt cross the border because there’s some kinda gay-invisi-shield.
This is the sort of court system our Democrats dream of. They have such fantasies because they believe that they will remain in power. Instead, the reality of political power switching to conservatives one day, should make them realize the folly of such delusions. If only they could see what lies in the near future, there would be room for intelligent discussion.
I’ve found errors in Wikipedia, but the Wikipedia article I posted cited William Safire, and I also linked to a page (in my Burke quote) that went into much further detail. Books by noted authors contain errors. Here’s Safire again, from his book “Safire’s Political Dictionary”:
A the Shah was overthrown, ostensibly, for corruption and injustice? WTH is this lastest regime if not corrupt and unjust?
I’m sure SOS Clinton will be riding to the rescue soon.
This *ahem* reporter must be getting paid by the word.
How truly pathetic.
Um, you’re a little late. Roxana Saberi is an apologist for Iran. So sad that anyone is crying any tears for this propagandist whose reports on Iran for BBC and NPR were absolutely sickening in their gushing. Even her own father admits she used her position as a “reporter” to pimp Iran on us.
While Michelle links to a site promoting her somewhat “critical” reporting on Iran, that site conveniently ignores all of her apologism, which was the vast majority of her work.
She went there of her own accord to parrot the BBC/NPR line. She knew the risks. Now, we’re all supposed to pay more attention to her than persecuted Iranians who aren’t apologists and didn’t come to the country voluntarily, like Iran’s Jews, who want to get out and aren’t allowed.
Sorry, but reporters and journalists don’t deserve more sympathy (as they get on this site) than the real victims of persecution in country’s like Iran and elsewhere.
Don’t care what her politics were. She didn’t commit a “real” crime. A government with any amount of minerals wouldn’t put up with this for a minute and, at the very least, would demand her release. Our Executive, on the other hand, is currently polishing his lips with an emory board, presumably so they don’t chap Iran’s behind.
Um, no, I’m not late. I had read your column and knew what you said about Saberi. I was being sarcastic.
What the hell happened to you that has made you such a dark, bitter person? The amount of joy you take in other people’s pain is disturbing.
Mookie, We here on the dark side enjoy torturing small animals and children. We also enjoy whips chains and blindfolds.
Just kidding. Lighten up.