No Justice in Iran

Iranian hardliners have intensified their anti-Western crackdown by sentencing two Iranian-Americans to 10 years in prison on charges of cooperating with the United States. The unjust judgments, reported by Iranian media on Tuesday, mark the latest effort by the judiciary, controlled by the country’s hardline faction, to thwart improved ties with the United States and the West after the 2015 nuclear deal.

The two convicted men are Siamak Namazi, a businessman in his mid-40s who graduated from Tufts and Rutgers, and his 80-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, who reportedly suffers from a heart condition. Siamak Namazi was detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard in October 2015 while he was visiting family in Tehran. He once ran a consulting firm in Iran that advised multinational companies. His father was arrested in February, apparently after traveling to Tehran to negotiate his son’s release.

Iran’s prosecutor accused the Namazis and four other defendants, who were also convicted and given similar sentences, of “espionage and collaboration with the American government.” But he provided no evidence, the process is anything but transparent, the judiciary is known to be highly politicized and it is not clear if the men were even allowed a lawyer.

“My father has been handed practically a death sentence,” Siamak’s brother Babak said in a statement. He argued that his brother’s only “crime” had been to “speak out against the negative effect of sanctions” on Iran in a 2013 New York Times Op-Ed article.

Since the nuclear deal, which lifted international sanctions in return for commitments that Iran would curb its nuclear program, a number of people with dual Iranian and foreign nationalities have been arrested. Last month, for example, an Iranian-British woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was sentenced to five years in prison on national security charges. She works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the judiciary accused her and her organization of using charitable work as a cover for spying for Western governments.

Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Samazis and other innocent victims of this unfair system should be released.

Some analysts say the hardliners are effectively taking “hostages” that can be used to enhance Iran’s leverage in international negotiations. In addition, the Revolutionary Guard, which benefits greatly from its control over key parts of the economy, is not eager to have Iran open up to foreign investment. The arrests undoubtedly make Iranians with dual citizenship — and probably other foreigners as well — wary about visiting Iran or investing there. That can only hurt President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who took the lead in negotiating the nuclear deal and sold it as a way to integrate his once-isolated country into the international economy. He is up for reelection next year and until then, the internal political warfare is only expected to get worse.

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http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/no-justice-in-iran/?_r=0