Iran Throws Down Gauntlet: Sentences Two U.S. Hikers to 8 Years In Jail
This sentence in Iran can only be interpreted as the country throwing down the gauntlet to the Obama administration, saying in effect: “I dare you to try and do something about it.” Truly a sad and disgusting verdict — but in the end some believe they will not serve the full time:
Iranian authorities sentenced two Americans arrested and detained along the Iran-Iraq border to eight years in prison, state television cited an unnamed judicial source as saying on Saturday.
The men, who have already been held in prison for more than two years in Iran, have 20 days to appeal their convictions on charges of illegal entry onto Iranian territory and espionage.
Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, both 28 years old, were arrested along the Iran-Iraq border during what they insist was an ill-fated hiking trip in the scenic mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Iranian officials allege that the two men were spies, but have yet to publicly present any evidence. A third hiker, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail last year and has been campaigning for her friends’ release. All three are Berkeley grads.
Their case was tried by a branch of the country’s politically charged Revolutionary Court, which handles national security cases and has been accused of failing to abide by international or even Iranian standards of jurisprudence, especially when it comes to defendants’ rights.
Bauer was working as a freelance journalist and had been undertaking a yearlong visit to the Middle East at the time of their arrest.
In the Middle East, Bauer planned to spend time “absorbing on the ground whatever he could in the Arab world and offered to contribute stories to us,” Sandy Close, executive director of California-based New America Media, told CNN in 2009.
“I think this is a very experienced traveler, a backpack kind of traveler, not somebody who would go to the Ritz Carlton,” Close said of Bauer. “[He's] somebody who would go to the hostel, who would operate on a shoestring, as many freelancers do.”
Bauer was planning to write a story about elections in Iraqi Kurdistan at the time when the trio went hiking near the Iranian border.
“I think he went to [Iraqi] Kurdistan to cover the elections … and [during a hike] unfortunately didn’t know the ground he was walking on well enough to avoid crossing over whatever boundary was there,” Close said.
A 2007 honors graduate in peace and conflict studies at Berkeley, Bauer is fluent in Arabic, Close said.
Though he knows Arabic and is comfortable with Arab culture, he doesn’t understand Farsi and therefore “would not have been able or, I think, interested in going [into Iran],” Close said.
Fattal graduated from Berkeley in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental economics and policy, the university said.
He shares his friends’ love of travel and learning, and was described as “fiercely intellectual” by his friend, Chris Foraker, who spoke to CNN affiliate KVAL in Eugene, Oregon in 2009.
Foraker said he met Fattal during a study abroad program in 2003, and the two worked together at the nonprofit Aprovecho sustainable living research center in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
“[Fattal] is a really great guy. We had a really good working relationship with him, and we love him a lot and hope to see him home safe soon,” said Aprovecho’s Jeremy Roth, who spoke to CNN affiliate KEZI in Eugene at the time of his arrest.
Rick Moran (a TMV favorite as a writer and occasional contributor) in the American Thinker:
Entirely predictable. And now we await the magnanimous gesture by the fanatics in Tehran of releasing these poor kids who have already spent two years in an Iranian prison…
Their lawyer didn’t even know the kids had been convicted. Some justice system.
Speculation is that the Iranian government will release the kids before the end of the month due to the observance of Ramadan. They are de facto hostages, of course, and because of that, I would expect that date to slip.
The Washington Post cites the website irinn.ir as saying the two were each sentenced to three years for illegal entry into Iran and five years for spying for the United States, again citing unnamed sources in Iran’s judiciary. It is not yet clear whether those sentences include the more than two years the two men have already served in Tehran’s Evin Prison; they were arrested on July 31, 2009.
Both charges are absurd. Eye witness testimony uncovered in our own reporting, corroborated by the account of Sarah Shourd, Bauer’s fiance, who was released last year, strongly indicate that the three friends, who had embarked on a hiking trip in the scenic mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, only crossed the border into Iran after being gestured off their hiking trail by armed guards. The spying charge is ludicrous, and Iran has never offered a shred of evidence for this claim. That’s because no such evidence exists.Bauer and Fattal have 20 days to appeal the sentence. As the Washington Post editorialized earlier this month, as rumors were circulating of a possible compassionate release for Ramadan, “Promises of leniency by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the case have not been borne out….If the court finds them guilty on the charges of espionage, we hope they will be sentenced to time served and released.” The choice to release them now lies in Ahmadinejad’s hands.
Once again the unfeeling, brutality of international politics comes into play. There families must be in excruciating pain. Pain that will last ever day they are held there — whether it’s one day, a month or 8 years.
10 Responses to “Iran Throws Down Gauntlet: Sentences Two U.S. Hikers to 8 Years In Jail”
I have to say that reading stuff like this is highly humorous considering:
Guantanamo documents reveal US brutality and lawlessness
The hypocrisy just blows the mind…
So you consider it hypocrisy to run a post on this story? I continue to be amazed at how people cannot just address an issue raised in a post. This is not a treatise on imprisonment and torture. It’s about two young hikers. The post is not written with any agenda; the comment above is. We have run a lot of posts on Guantanamo over the years. This is a separate issue. It is not “hypocrisy” for running this story. It’s reporting news.
Mr Gandelman,
If you can’t appreciate the hypocrisy, there is nothing I can say.
I wonder how many Arabs, Iraqis, Pakistanis & others can say the exact same thing.
I am always amused when Americans complain about their treatment at the hands of other governments when we know how the US government has treated foreign nationals (even US citizens, Jose Padilla ring a bell?) in the very recent past.
I am all in favor of bashing other countries’ human right record, but it would really help if ours wasn’t nearly as bad as theirs.
I won’t leave another comment but Guantamo is another issue and we have run posts including by The Talking Dog who interviewed attorneys for some of the accused. Yes. I fail to see the hypocrisy in running a post about a news story. If we had been cheerleading torture on this site it would be another thing. You clearly have NOT read TMV over the years. Further name calling comments because we “dare” to run a post on a news story are not welcome here. Please read our commenting policy. Your comment refers to a blogger that is quoted in this post. You can leave your comments on that site if you have a problem with his assertion. We have run MANY POSTS over the years about torture and Guantanamo over the years written by writers both on tmv and Guest Voice writers. This comment I’m leaving now is asking you to move on. Similar comments are not welcome on TMV as per our commenting policy. You can discuss the issue, or your view about a double standard by Americans. But you are not accurate in your comment about TMV and we WILL run posts about news items and name calling is not welcome. Jose Padilla is a valid issue to discuss. That’s different that saying “hypocrisy.”
We have run MANY POSTS on Jose Padilla. If you researched it you would see.
Do a google search on Jose Padilla The Moderate Voice. Again: refrain from
turning this post into an attack on us supposedly being “hypocrites” for running it.
That is not welcome on this site and does not address a)the issue of the news story
b)your point about a double standard by Americans.
The main problem I see here is that there is no Planetary Constitution that covers everyone regardless of where they are born, and no planet-wide federal government with the authority to enforce it.
What we have now is an impotent UN that can’t accomplish much of anything except put on a good show.
Conspiracy Theorists have alot of nonsense to say about “One World Governments”, but like it or not, that is the direction we’re slowly headed, and eventually it will happen.
A world-wide set of constitutional rights would have a positive effect on the planet. But I don’t see it happening in my lifetime, unless there is a major cataclysm.
This is clearly a slap in the face of the U.S.
However, what in the world were they doing there anyway? I could never figure that out, no sane person, much less Americans, would go hiking on the border of Iraq & Iran. None of the official explanations make a lick of sense.
The only possible explanation is a) they were indeed spying or probing the border for weaknesses, or b) they were the most clueless world travelers ever.
Still seems like a travesty of justice, politically motivated.
Why on earth were these people, “scenic hiking”, in Iraq? What were they thinking? Not only did they do something incredibly stupid, but they have put this nation in a diplomatic mess in doing so. Yes Iran is a totalitarian state. Yes Iran is a pariah state. Yes Iran probably crossed the border to nab these people as they “hiked” close to the border. Yes Iran is evil. Yes Iran is being Iran. Would anyone expect Iran not to be Iran? The “sentence” is horrible, it’s unfair, but it’s what we expect from Iran. Let this serve as a warning to would be journalists or, “scenic”, hikers; Stay the hell away from Iran because when they get you there is NOTHING we can do about it.
Barky, I suspect it was b). Allen, as someone who had the spirit of adventure when I was young I went a lot of places and did a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have. That said I wouldn’t have expected anyone to have a lot of sympathy for me if I had run into bad times. I was lucky but had more than one close call.
Ron-
Yes, me too. The younger I was, the dumber I was. Though now I conveniently chalk it up to ideological adventurism or youthful indiscretion. Sometimes I wonder how I survived. Some didn’t and I remember that every day. Still, we must instruct the younger. It is our duty. We can’t control them, but they can’t say we didn’t warn them.
Joe G.: Iran may or may not have challenged the USA (and the rest of the West if it’s not fully degraded as well as decadent), but it’s surely wrong. (It’s common consensus here that the hikers were not spies).
This was actually a good topic for you to have posted given the gross far-leftish bias here.
My own view? Yes, there likely was some challenge to the USA (namely, nearly 100%, Obama). [shrug] if anyone wants to be really smart (and humble, too, like me [grin]), maybe that means Iran believes Obama will be re-elected. (Given the GOP field, why would Iran or any other party in the world conclude otherwise?)