A Canadian human rights activist is concerned over Iran's "deeply flawed" legal process after a Canadian-Iranian journalist lost his appeal against a 19-year prison term in that country.
"I don't know if it's been a fair process," said Gloria Nafziger of Amnesty International Canada.
"I think the biggest ongoing problem is access to fair trial in Iran, adequate opportunities to represent yourself and present defence and to have access to a lawyer."
Hossein Derakhshan, a 35-year-old known as the "blogfather" of the Iranian blogging movement, has been imprisoned in Iran since 2008 and was convicted last year of "aiding enemy states and propaganda against the Islamic system" because he travelled to Israel.
He went to Israel in 2006, using his Canadian passport to circumvent Iran's ban on such visits, because he hoped to help change the views that Israelis and Iranians have of each other's countries...Leaving aside that unintentional bit of drollery for the moment, I would note that AI "human rights" "activists" are in a constant lather about something or other that Israel has done, but appear to be relatively blasé and uniformed (appallingly so) about Khomeinist-style sharia law.
Update: Quel surprise--Gloria isn't at all understated or unsure of things when it comes to Israel.
1 comment:
Gloria knows full well that Mossad assassination squads are not going to target her for lambasting Israel's human rights record. AI has a long history of coming down much harder on minor--or illusory--"human rights" violations in Western or pro-Western countries than on truly egregious abuses against human dignity by anti-Western dictatorships. Ideological affinities no doubt account for much of this slant, probably most of it where Marxist or at least socialist governments are the abusers, but, in the case of Islamofascist entities, I think that raw physical fear is the determining factor.
Post a Comment