Comments on: What Will Become of Roxana Saberi?

By: PhDork

PhDork — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:07:28 +0000

JDR, s.o.a.lg: since the revolution in ’79, Iran has had a particularly egregious human-rights record. Evin Prison, especially, has a nasty history of secret “trials,” mass executions and disappeared prisoners. (Although the Shah wasn’t exactly Ghandi, and SAVAK–the Iranian CIA–was a nefarious, shadowy force for a looooong time.)

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:52:36 +0000

@JD: To be honest, I am not fluent enough in Iranian jurisprudence to attempt to answer that. I think the fact that she is foreign has influenced the fact that it even is an espionage case, which is their excuse for keeping it secret. But, as BeckySharper noted, this is not exactly the first time something like this has happened.

By: J.D.Regent

J.D.Regent — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:05:21 +0000

I know very little about the Iranian justice system, but is this kind of treatment normal in their criminal trials? Or is it a special case because it is espionage, she is foreign, etc?

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:36:44 +0000

@Becky: I hope things are different. I also hope that the current outrage will sustain itself beyond the 48-hour news cycle. Especially since Saberi is not, y’know, a white woman. There have been more than a few comments around the blogosphere that this should not be such a big deal because she’s Iranian (she’s American, but whatevs) and she’s a Muslim (I actually don’t know what her faith is, but that shouldn’t matter).

I also fear that in all the outrage yesterday over Ahmedinejad’s statements about Israel and racism, a story like this will just get buried. The MSM does not seem have the ability to focus in depth on more than one story coming out of Tehran (or even the Middle East at large) at any given time.

@PhDork: It is a great blog and far more impartial than most out there.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:17:33 +0000

It just chills my blood when I think about what happened to Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi in Evin Prison in 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi

I really pray that things are different for Roxana Saberi. If anything, Zahra’s death and the public outcry that followed might make the Iranian goverment more inclined to release Roxana, or at least prevent her from being brutalized in the same way.

By: PhDork

PhDork — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:17:00 +0000

How do you say “kangaroo court” in Farsi?

And many thanks for the B & B bloglink–I’ve been looking for something just like that.

By: lalaland13

lalaland13 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:12:54 +0000

Anytime journalists are detained, I get freaked out. This is especially disturbing because hey, she’s a person, not a bargaining chip. It’s like she’s being robbed of all her humanity in the name of-what, exactly? I don’t know. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.