Posted on 09/28/2010 7:38:20 PM PDT by Inappropriate Laughter
Online politics, it seems, is a dangerous game in Iran–even when you occasionally play on the side of the party in power.
Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian blogger and journalist, has been sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison on charges ranging from propaganda against the Islamic Republic to collaborating with enemy states, according to Reporters Without Borders. (RSF) He’s also been fined the equivalent of more than $40,000.
Though Derakhshan had been threatened with the death penalty, his prison sentence represents the harshest punishment ever received by an Iranian blogger.
Though Derakhshan is widely credited with popularizing blogging in Iran and sparking vocal opposition to the regime, he’s more recently supported many of the policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad–including his push to develop nuclear weapons–and attacked dissidents in his writing.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.forbes.com ...
Somewhere on Pennsylvania another muslim leader is taking notes and sighing in envy.
no tears from me
btt
Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian blogger and journalist, has been sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison on charges ranging from propaganda against the Islamic Republic to collaborating with enemy states
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