Iran sentences blogger to 19 years in prison
Hugh Freaking Dillon
Posts: 14,010
a blogger. a fucking blogger. seriously. and apparently this isn't new. :shock:
TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian news website said Tuesday a court has sentenced a well-known Canadian-Iranian blogger to more than 19 years in prison.
The conservative website, Mashreghnews.ir, which is close to Iran's presidential office, said Hossein Derakhshan was convicted on charges of co-operation with hostile countries, spreading propaganda against the ruling establishment, promotion of counterrevolutionary groups and insulting Islamic thoughts and religious figures.
The report said Derakhshan can appeal.
Derakhshan, who made trips to Israel and blogged in both English and Farsi, has been in prison since 2008. It was unclear if he would benefit from time served.
Last week, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and PEN Canada said Derakhshan's family had told them that the Iranian prosecutor was calling for the death penalty.
They said they were joining the family in asking for the Canadian government to intervene in the case.
Iranian authorities have arrested numerous bloggers in recent years in a bid to clamp down on Internet dissent.
TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian news website said Tuesday a court has sentenced a well-known Canadian-Iranian blogger to more than 19 years in prison.
The conservative website, Mashreghnews.ir, which is close to Iran's presidential office, said Hossein Derakhshan was convicted on charges of co-operation with hostile countries, spreading propaganda against the ruling establishment, promotion of counterrevolutionary groups and insulting Islamic thoughts and religious figures.
The report said Derakhshan can appeal.
Derakhshan, who made trips to Israel and blogged in both English and Farsi, has been in prison since 2008. It was unclear if he would benefit from time served.
Last week, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and PEN Canada said Derakhshan's family had told them that the Iranian prosecutor was calling for the death penalty.
They said they were joining the family in asking for the Canadian government to intervene in the case.
Iranian authorities have arrested numerous bloggers in recent years in a bid to clamp down on Internet dissent.
Gimli 1993
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governments abuse power, unless the people hold them in check.
i can do nothing for this guy in Iran, its shitty, but as an american i have no power over the iranian government.
things within the US, or things the US supports....that's another story. that's worth standing up to, because no government rules without public consent.
you've heard that line yeah? eddie has sung it. and its true whether a totalitarian dictatorship, communist regime, or democratic capitalist structure. and i'm not saying, since eddie said it it must be true, i'm gonna tell you why its true.
its because the people literally run the country. if nobody shows up to work tomorrow, there is no country to run. their position of privilege means nothing. they are no longer above us, they are "us". security and governance are nice, but without labor, there is nothing to rule. labor is the point of everything.
its why the US passed the patriot act, why the iranian blogger was sentenced so harshly. also why vietnam ended, why minorties have rights, why we have minimum wage, worker rights.....
because people can end any government, at any time. the authorities are very aware of this, they have to listen to mass popular protest or face revolution.
if people were truly informed, motivated and organized, they wouldn't stand a chance. the government would end tomorrow. its that fragile, whatever the system ruling.
"governments abuse power" more accurately, government officials abuse power.
including ahdimenijahd.
"and the US..."
Only on this crazy train.
Anyhow, that is indeed ridiculous, regardless of the country.
The Iranian blogger has already spent two years in jail before being handed a 19 year sentence and I doubt that it will be overturned soon by Iran's supreme court system.
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
what you do see is people pointing out the hypocrisy that is apparent when it comes to Iran. a classic example of the hypocrisy is the recent 60 billion arms deal that the Obama administration recently unveiled with the Saudi's. they like to cut of peoples heads in public executions and chop off hands and feet for stealing. but apparently that's ok, you don't see people getting all uptight about that like you do over Iran's human rights violations do you. and you know what? you should!
why's that again? what's your thoughts on it?
it's because the warmongers are right behind the US Government and their thirst for power at any cost, and are apparently unconcerned with actions ultimately motivated by greed and the insatiable lust for power.
i'm not defending Ahmadinejad. he's a big mouth and needs to shut up. i'm defending an unnecessary invasion of Iran which would see god knows how many thousands of innocent people killed, including children.
how many of you people know your history????
two years before the election of Ahmadinejad to the presidency, Iran made an offer to the US to recognize Israel, help broker a two-state peace solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and end Iran’s support of armed groups in the Middle East region, all in return for the US accepting Iran as what the 70-million population nation unarguably is: a legitimate power in the region.
That offer was slapped down by the Bush/Cheney administration, which had as its goal not peace in Palestine or with Iran, but the occupation and control of Iraq, and perhaps ultimately a war against Iran. In fact, since the Iraq invasion, the US is known to have been financing and helping to organize a terror campaign inside Iran that has led to many deaths by bombings. If any country is acting towards the other in an aggressive and warlike fashion, it is the US, towards Iran, and not the reverse.
It needs to be said, but somehow never is in the establishment US media, whether corporate or not-for-profit, that Iran historically is not an aggressive, expansive nation (can that be said with a straight face about our own country?). Though it is, by dint of its oil reserves and its population, one of the biggest and most powerful countries in the Middle East, Iran has not invaded another country since the 18th century, and there is no indication that it plans to invade any other country now.
http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/inde ... =node/9877
so pick another political prisoner.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black activist, is facing the death penalty, currently being held in prison. some say because of his outspoken criticism of the philly police department.
http://www.freemumia.org/intro.html
i love that you think people have the power. it is my greatest wish that this be true. can you tell the people cause from what ive seen theyre waaaaaaaaaaay too comfortable in their own lives to know this... or to even think they can make a difference.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
apparently that's all you read of the post since i made my point very clear.
we can't do anything about the Iranian government, as American citizens what we can affect is the US gov't.
hence the first 3 words being what they were.
It might be the one chance the guy has left if he has any ties to this country to get him out of this mess.
Tell that to Leonard Peltier.
Angel, you raise a good point regarding the Saudis. Iran was the topic of this conversation, so I commented on them. If a critique of prehistoric discipline methods in Saudi Arabia was the topic, I would've told you how archaic and stupid those methods are.
which you can't deny.
But yes, people still get screwed all the time. Especially during the ides of April.