16 May 2009

A followup on Roxana Saberi's confidential document

Earlier this week there was some mention in the press that Roxana Saberi, the American/Iranian journalist arrested and released by the Iranians, may have possessed a confidential Iranian document. Today the Lede of the New York Times provides additional details -
In recent days, her lawyer has said that she indeed had some sensitive documents in her possession when she was arrested — some internal documents from a conservative political party and a copy of a 2003 document assessing the planned American invasion of Iraq — but that she had never used them. In court, her lawyers argued that the documents were not formally classified, and because the United States and Iran were not at war, the espionage charges against her were invalid. Her punishment was reduced from an eight-year prison term to a two-year suspended sentence...

Mr. Khorramshahi also told the L.A. Times that “the widely disseminated report that she was initially arrested for purchasing a bottle of wine, an explanation she had given her father during a hurried prison phone call,” was incorrect. The lawyer told the Times that Iranian authorities “arrived at her house with a warrant on Jan. 30 and took her away,” because of one of the documents in her possession. He also said that she had not been charged with working as a journalist after her press credentials expired: “There was no charge like that in her file.”
That's it. End of story. No need to discuss it any more - unless some Iranian gets caught with internal documents of the Republican party.

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