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Iran Opens Trial of 3 Americans on Spy Charges

Notes on my thoughts,

Court authorities imposed a blanket ban on observers, including Swiss Ambassador

reactions and questions as I

Livia Leu Agosti, who represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of direct

read:

diplomatic relations.

The third American, Bauer's fiancée, Sarah Shourd, was released in September on

$500,000 bail arranged through the Gulf nation of Oman, which maintains close ties to

the West and Iran. She was ordered back to Tehran for the trial by Iranian officials and

the bail will likely be forfeited because of her absence.

The Americans were detained in July 2009 along the Iraqi border. They claim they were

hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region and that if they crossed into Iran it was inadvertent.

Iran, however, pressed forward with spy charges that could bring a maximum sentence

of 10 years in prison if convicted.

Shourd and Bauer had been living together in Damascus, Syria, where Bauer was

working as a freelance journalist and Shourd as an English teacher. Fattal, an

environmental activist, went to visit them in July 2009 shortly before their trip to

northern Iraq. The families of the detainees have made high-profile appeals for their

release, including during a visit by the three mothers to Tehran in May. The trip,

however, was carefully orchestrated by Iranian authorities and included a meeting

between the mothers and relatives of five Iranians held for more than two years by the

U.S. military in Iraq.

Just days after her release, Shourd met Ahmadinejad while he was in New York to

attend the U.N. General Assembly and asked for his intervention to free Bauer and

Fattal. In an interview with The Associated Press at the time, Ahmadinejad noted that

while the Americans had broken the law by crossing into Iran, he would ask the

judiciary to expedite the process and to "look at the case with maximum leniency."

Yet Ahmadinejad also has used the case to draw attention to Iranians held in the United

States. In particular, he drew a link to the trial in the U.S. of Amir Hossein Ardebili, an

Iranian who was sentenced to five years in prison last year after pleading guilty to

plotting to ship sensitive U.S. military technology to Iran.

According to court papers, Ardebili worked as a procurement agent for the Iranian

government and acquired thousands of components, including military aircraft parts,

night vision devices, communications equipment and Kevlar body armor. U.S.

authorities targeted him in 2004 after he contacted an undercover storefront set up in

Philadelphia to investigate illegal arms trafficking.

The current case in Tehran recalls that of American-Iranian journalist Roxanna Saberi,

who was arrested in Iran in January 2009 and convicted of espionage and sentenced to

eight years in prison. She was freed on appeal in May 2009.

A political analyst at the independent Mardomsalari newspaper in Tehran, Hamid Reza

Shokouhi, said the secretive nature of the court proceedings is "not necessarily a

negative point" for the jailed Americans. He said that past experiences, such as Saberi's

case, showed that the judiciary can eventually show a "positive attitude."

Karimi, N. (2011, February 6). Iran Opens Trial of 3 Americans on Spy

Charges. Associated Press. Retrieved from

Iran Opens Trial Of 3 Americans On Spy Charges - Middle School Reading Article Worksheet Page 2

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