BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran

Subject: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: beardedbruce
Date: 15 May 07 - 01:40 PM

U.S. academic held in Iran

POSTED: 6:11 a.m. EDT, May 15, 2007

Story Highlights• Dual American-Iranian citizen held for "crimes against national security"
• Haleh Esfandiari is a program director based in Washington
• Esfandiari was visiting her mother and lost her passports
• She could face the death penalty if convicted
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TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- A U.S.-based academic -- and dual American-Iranian citizen -- is being investigated for "crimes against national security" after she was arrested in Tehran last week by the Intelligence Ministry, Iranian judiciary officials said Tuesday.

Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Middle East program, was arrested on May 8 and taken to Tehran's Evin prison, the center and her family said last week.

The arrest took place at a time of rising tension between Washington and Tehran over Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at making atom bombs, and the conflict in Iraq.

"She is right now under the authority of the Intelligence Ministry," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters.

"Her crime is security issues, investigations over crimes against security are still going on," he said.

Jamshidi did not give details but a judiciary source later told Reuters Esfandiari was suspected of "crimes against national security," a broad legal term covering acts deemed to endanger the stability of the Islamic state.

Terrorism, spying, political unrest and assassination attempts are examples of crimes falling within this category under Iranian law. The charge could carry the death sentence.

The U.S. State Department has condemned the arrest of Esfandiari, who has dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship, and said she was among a number of U.S.-Iranians being detained by Tehran.

Last week's statement from the center and her family also said she needed medical attention but did not say why.

Esfandiari flew to Tehran in December to visit her mother. As she drove to the airport to catch a flight back she was robbed of her belongings, including her passports, it said.

She applied for replacement Iranian travel documents and was interviewed by the Intelligence Ministry. There then followed weeks of interrogations focusing on her work for the center, it said.

The center's president, former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, sent a letter in February to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explaining the work of the organization and seeking his help in securing Esfandiari's return to the United States.

Hamilton was the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group which last year issued recommendations for ending the violence in Iraq, including engaging with longtime U.S. foe Iran.

The center's Middle East program focuses on the political, social and economic developments in the region and examines U.S. interests in the region and the threat of terrorism.

U.S. officials believe Tehran may also be holding former FBI official Robert Levinson, who went missing early in March while on a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. Iran has denied this.

Subject: RE: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 May 07 - 01:48 PM

See - Iran's still got quite a lot in common with the USA, especially when it comes to dealing with people identified as enemy sympathisers.

Subject: RE: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: dianavan
Date: 15 May 07 - 05:18 PM

If Iran had the former FBI official, they would probably admit it. Why not? Then they would have TWO well-known prisoners that they could exchange for five, harldy known, Iranian diplomats.

Subject: RE: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: Donuel
Date: 15 May 07 - 08:16 PM

Answer: USA, Iran, North Korea, Bangladesh


Question: What countires still execute or life imprision minors age 15 or under,

Subject: RE: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 May 07 - 03:30 PM

Nobel laureate: Iranian-Americans political prisoners
POSTED: 1:29 p.m. EDT, May 25, 2007
Story Highlights• Shirin Ebadi says her client, Haleh Esfandiari, is innocent of crimes against Iran
• Esfandiari held at Evin Prison, which houses many dissidents, political prisoners
• Two other Iranian-Americans detained, another prevented from leaving country
• Ebadi is first Muslim woman to have won Nobel Peace Prize

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An Iranian-American woman detained in Tehran is being held illegally and has been repeatedly denied access to an attorney, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi told CNN on Friday.

Ebadi said that Haleh Esfandiari and other Iranian-Americans held in Iran are political prisoners.

"Iran doesn't observe laws," she said through an interpreter in an exclusive interview while visiting the United States.

Iranian officials have said Esfandiari, a scholar with dual citizenship, is being held in prison in Tehran while under investigation for "crimes against national security."

Ebadi, one of Esfandiari's attorneys, said her client is innocent.

The Nobel laureate said that two of her colleagues went to try to see Esfandiari but officials at a judge's office would not let them in.

When they asked to read Esfandiari's file, they were denied access, she said.

"And when they asked what the charges were, they did not get an answer," she said.

Esfandiari, who works for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, was detained in Tehran on May 8. Her husband, Shaul Bakhash, said she had been questioned for weeks before her arrest.

Esfandiari's problems began in December, when her passports were stolen as she was on her way to catch a flight home. When she applied for a new passport, authorities began questioning her about her work. The Woodrow Wilson Center says the questioning was conducted by officials of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

Earlier this month, Esfandiari was locked up in Tehran's Evin Prison, which houses many Iranian dissidents and political prisoners.

In 2000, Ebadi was held in the same prison.

"This is a small room with cement walls and no windows," she said. "There is a fluorescent light that's on 24 hours. And since one's watch is taken from one, you can never tell the time."

Ebadi said she will return to Iran early next month to take up Esfandiari's case -- and try to visit her in prison. "I will go there two or three times per week. I will challenge the court, and I will make them understand that they are violating my client's human rights."

Ebadi, who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, is the founder of the Center for Defense of Human Rights in Tehran. She is the first Muslim woman to win the coveted award.

In a statement issued Friday, Human Rights Watch demanded the Iranian authorities "should immediately release the three Iranian-Americans and the dozens of activists, teachers and scholars arbitrarily detained."

Others reportedly detained
Besides Esfandiari, Human Rights Watch said an Iranian-American sociologist, Kian Tajbakhsh, also is being held at Evin Prison after being arrested May 11. Tajbakhsh works for the Open Society Institute. The Iranian authorities have not confirmed his arrest.

Associates of Ali Shakeri, another Iranian-American who recently had traveled to Iran, told Human Rights Watch that he is also being detained by the Iranian authorities. The Iranian government has not provided any public information about his whereabouts.

The authorities also have confiscated the passport of Parnaz Azima, a reporter for Persian-language broadcaster Radio Farda who holds both Iranian and American citizenship. The prosecutor's office told her that she would be charged with working for an "institution spreading publicity against the Iranian Islamic Republic."

Subject: RE: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 May 07 - 04:39 PM

It is never a good idea to follow someone else's bad example.

Subject: RE: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: LadyJean
Date: 26 May 07 - 04:29 PM

Two years ago, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment of minors unconstitutional.

Subject: RE: BS: Visiting her mom threatens Iran
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 May 07 - 08:10 AM

I note that that that this was only decided on the narrowest of margins - 5-4. It seems likely enough that a Bush-adjusted Supreme Court might well find a way of reversing the ruling. Supreme Court Strikes Down Death Penalty for Juveniles