Canada ping.
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Posted on 05/03/2006 3:27:35 PM PDT by nuconvert
Iranian author arrested in Tehran
By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Tehran
A leading Canadian-Iranian intellectual, Ramin Jahanbegloo, has been arrested at the airport in Tehran. A prominent dissident cleric described Mr Jahanbegloo's arrest as "the height of lawlessness and insecurity".
At a gathering to celebrate International Press Freedom Day, Mohsen Kadivar said Mr Jahanbegloo was one of Iran's philosophical journalists.
The arrest has caused concern about freedom of speech as Iran comes under increasing pressure from abroad.
Mr Jahanbegloo is a well-known Canadian-Iranian professor with doctorates from the Sorbonne and Harvard University.
He has written and edited more than a dozen books on philosophy and political science.
He was arrested at Tehran airport several days ago and reports say his house was then searched.
A reformist newspaper quotes the judiciary saying there are several charges against Mr Jahanbegloo which will be made public at the end of his interrogation.
Press freedom
His arrest has worried human rights activists like Mr Kadivar, who himself has spent time behind bars.
"Of course I'm concerned," he said.
"In a country fighting for respect of law and freedom of press for more than 100 years, still we have a well-known figure who's arrested without a proper court order or open trial, and they don't even announce that he's been arrested. This is the height of insecurity and lawlessness."
Mr Kadivar was speaking at an awards ceremony for journalists in Tehran which honoured the writer Akbar Ganji, who has recently been released from jail.
Mr Ganji urged Iranian journalists not to self-censor or keep their newspapers open at any cost.
And he questioned why in Iran there is no real debate on the nuclear issue, saying everywhere else in the world, civil society groups protest against nuclear power plans, but in Iran everyone lines up to defend them.
He's Canadian? What you will do about this, Canada?
He has dual citizenship
"The arrest has caused concern about freedom of speech as Iran . . ."
LOL! Yeah, right up until that point, everybody had been operating under the assumption that freedom of speech was the guaranteed there.
I know Im supposed to care but....er..I dont.
Ramin Jahanbegloo is a very popular professor and the students at Tehran Univ. are threatening large scale protests until he is released.
You are more likely to find a pig farm.
Canada ping.
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
I don't expect that the Harper Government will respond in the same mealy mouthed, whining style that personified the LIEberals.
Although I don't expect Canada to launch a commando operation to get the good Professor out of jail, I do expect a strong response, and that response may or may not be in the public eye. There are plenty of things that Canada might do in this matter, and while I have been as critical of our northern neighbor (neighbour) as anyone in the past, I hasten to reminder my fellow Freepers that Canada was the one nation who defied Iran during the hostage crisis and provided Canadian passports and credentials to some of our people in the Embassy to get them out of the country, otherwise they would have joined the rest of the hostages who were already being held captive.
I will always appreciate Canada (and then-PM Joe Clark) for having the guts to do what they did, the consequences be damned.
There should be no hyphenated Canadians - just Canadians whose first loyalty is to Canada.
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