Ahmadinejad calls for rights for Saberi & MeFi's Hoder April 19, 2009 10:06 AM   Subscribe

Iranian President Ahmadinejad calls on judiciary to allow the jailed Iranian-American Roxana Saberi and MeFi's Hoder to "enjoy all freedoms and legal rights to defend themselves and their rights are not violated,"

In a letter to the Revolutionary Court, Iran's president has called for the detainees to be allowed to defend themselves (!?) against the charges laid against them, shortly after Saberi is sentenced to 8 years in prison for espionage.

The BBC and Washington Post have brief articles concentrating mainly on Saberi's case, but both tangentially mention that the letter also discusses Hossein Derakhshan, better known around here as Hoder.

I can't say I've encountered Hoder during my time on MeFi beyond the threads below, but this whole affair sends chills down my spine - especially as a close friend of mine is Anglo-Iranian and occasionally visits family living there.

Previously on MeTa: Original, Update.
posted by Nice Guy Mike to MetaFilter-Related at 10:06 AM (21 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Wow, last night I was googling around to see what ever happened to hoder. I couldn't find any news results for "hoder released" or even "hoder sentenced" so I was hoping he wasn't still imprisoned but it seems so. Hopefully this eventually leads to a release for both.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:11 AM on April 19, 2009


... AHMADINEJAD is writing for them to be allowed to DEFEND THEMSELVES?

Iran is fucked up.
posted by kldickson at 10:37 AM on April 19, 2009


I never heard back from my MP nor from the Canadian Minister of External Affairs Lawrence Cannon, this is a good reminder to contact them again.
posted by Rumple at 11:00 AM on April 19, 2009


I did not know that this was going on. Time to talk to my (conservative) MP.
posted by furtive at 2:57 PM on April 19, 2009


Finally a (small) ray of sunshine in this awful case.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:11 PM on April 19, 2009


Hoder is also mentioned here (reportedly sentenced) at CNN:

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter Sunday to Tehran's prosecutor calling for justice in the cases of Saberi and another detained journalist, Hossein Derakhshan, state-run news agency IRNA reported.

Derakhshan is an Iranian-Canadian blogger who has been imprisoned in the country since November. Reporters Without Borders, a group that fights for journalists' rights worldwide, says Derakhshan was sentenced to four years in prison for disseminating the views of one ayatollah and for "publicity against the government."


from: Obama 'gravely concerned' about U.S. journalist in Iranian prison.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:16 PM on April 19, 2009


Somehow I doubt it'll prove all that helpful to publicly express grave concerns about the well-being of a person accused of spying for the country you're the president of.

Not that he shouldn't be concerned, mind you, just... Let them write their own propaganda, y'know?
posted by Sys Rq at 6:24 PM on April 19, 2009


Iran is fucked up.

Understatement of the year.
posted by anniecat at 7:30 PM on April 19, 2009


Contact Iranian TV,
posted by hortense at 7:38 PM on April 19, 2009


Iran is fucked up.

And full of litter by all accounts
posted by mattoxic at 9:33 PM on April 19, 2009


And full of litter by all accounts

Where in the thread did you see that?
posted by gman at 6:14 AM on April 20, 2009


Hoder on Wikipedia.
posted by oaf at 7:14 AM on April 20, 2009


Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. So, I, um, agree (!) with Ahmadinejad's statement (!?!?) and I hope that these people are released soon. My gut feeling is that they will be pardoned or something along those lines, for PR purposes.
posted by Mister_A at 8:30 AM on April 20, 2009

Somehow I doubt it'll prove all that helpful to publicly express grave concerns about the well-being of a person accused of spying for the country you're the president of.
I think that's a sort of naive and simplistic take on what's going on here. Nobody, in Iran or anywhere else, really thinks that Roxana Saberi was spying for the U.S. Hoder's case is different, but Saberi seems to be a pawn in an internal struggle in Iran over how to respond to Obama's overtures. The hardliners who run the judiciary are trying to provoke an international incident that will scuttle any attempt for Iran and America to improve relations. As much as possible, it's important for the Obama administration not to give them the international incident they want. At the same time, it's important that people with power in Iran realize that this incident is damaging their reputation. I think Obama's statement was pretty much exactly what he needed to do: strong enough to make his point, but restrained enough not to give the hardliners the outrage that they're seeking.

It's hard to find a silver lining on Roxana Saberi's situation, but I'm glad that at least it means that Hoder is getting more attention.

Some Saberi-related stuff:

FreeRoxana.net has updates and information about how to contact the Iranian mission in New York. If you send a letter, keep it polite. It can't hurt to write a letter about Hoder, as well.

Twitter page

Saberi's parents have set up a page.
posted by craichead at 8:59 AM on April 20, 2009


Saberi seems to be a pawn in an internal struggle in Iran over how to respond to Obama's overtures.

Or, worse yet, just a bargaining chip to use with Obama as Iran jockeys for enough time to finish developing nuclear weapons.
posted by Krrrlson at 12:20 PM on April 20, 2009


Though Hoder is mentioned only as a footnote, this piece briefly helps explain the convoluted complexity of Iranian policies. There seems to be two themes here; Iran's internal political wrangling and infighting; and the external aspect of a possibile a thaw in Iran / US relations. In each of these scenarios Saberi and Hoder are unfortunately just pawns.
posted by adamvasco at 12:23 AM on April 21, 2009


And a bit more.
posted by adamvasco at 12:42 AM on April 21, 2009


One of my senators (Voinovich, if you can believe it) actually responded when I wrote to him about Hoder... fairly useless GenericConstituentMail(tm), but at least it was something...
posted by bitter-girl.com at 8:09 AM on April 21, 2009


Bizarre. He's been in jail a damn long time now. It will be interesting to hear his take on things if he ever gets out.
posted by chunking express at 9:26 AM on April 21, 2009




Saberi freed.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:52 AM on May 15, 2009


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