12 May 2009

Roxana Saberi had a confidential Iranian document

I haven't been following this story very carefully, assuming the arrest was just saber-rattling by the Iranians, but I was intrigued by this paragraph in today's Associated Press report re her release:
One of Saberi's lawyers said she was originally convicted in part because she had visited Israel and because she kept a confidential Iranian government document about the U.S. war in Iraq, which she obtained while working as a freelance Web translator for a powerful body connected to Iran's ruling clerics.
She was/is a journalist, and journalists deal in documents. But the lawyer's statement appears to be that she "kept" a confidential document. It doesn't mean she was a spy, but it does throw some light on the reason she was arrested, which the NYT described thusly: "Ms. Saberi had originally been arrested for buying a bottle of wine, which is illegal in Iran. The charges were later elevated to working without a press credential and espionage."

TYWKIWDBI isn't taking a stand on this, probably won't return to it, and is certainly not siding with the Iranian authorities; I just think it's an interesting twist in the story.

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