Toronto Blogger Facing Espionage Charges in Iran
Hossein Derakhshan aka Hoder is a Iranian-Canadian who has called Toronto home for the past seven years. He's a prominent blogger, an Internet activist, and a writer for The Guardian UK. And he's been arrested by Iranian authorities on accusations of spying for Israel - an offense punishable by death.
An advocate for the use of the web for social and political reform in his country of birth, news of his reported confession comes as a shock to those that know him, which leads us to wonder if it was genuine or coerced.
Whether or not the federal government will put forth a concerted effort in support of Derakhshan is yet to be seen.
Photo of "Hoder" in Israel from his Flickr site.
Comments (11)
"Jahan News, an Iranian website affiliated with Iran's intelligence community, reported on Monday that he admitted to spying for Israel."
I wonder how many hours of torture it took to get that out of him, not that Iran practices such things.
"You're a spy for Israel" seems to just be the default fuck-you backstab of choice in a few of those countries, I can say from experience.
Social and Political Reform in a Muslim country? Hoo hoo heee hee haw haw...HARAM! Line up pal, behind the gays, for your turn in the hangman's noose.
Thanks for this. The fact that they've laid charges suggests this is more than just a demonstrative effort to convince uppity bloggers to "keep their heads down". Let's remember Zahra Kazemi; I hope bloggers, the msm, and the federal government keep on this as more information becomes available.
So I have this right, he is a dual national Iranian citizen. If he is stupid enough to return to Iran he deserves what he gets. He is not a Canadian in Iran.
As a US American citizen, I say lets give him the benifit of doubt. if he confessed, he should be killed, thats the law in Iran. He is of Iranian decent after all.
There is no way to prove he didnt confess, he could be tourtured to not confess just as well. it may be best to just do like us here in the US of American. and just kill him and forget of his existance.
I just learned of a Iranian-British guy, that was born in Iran, moved to Britian, changed his name and became a British National, then joined the British Army, became a Corporal even. Then gave up Nato troop movements in 2006 to the Iranian Defence Force and was only sentenced to 10 years in a British Prison. go figure
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