A global campaign mounted for weeks by diplomats, statesmen, scholars, and scores of her fellow journalists finally paid off early Monday when Roxana Saberi walked out of the doors of Evin Prison in Tehran and, accompanied by her father, headed for the first leg of her journey back to her home in the United States.
I was one of those who pitched in as a member of the Leadership Council of the Committee to Protect Journalists that was seeking her freedom. Indeed, the CPJ pulled out all stops—enlisting an international legal team at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton under the direction of James C. Goodale, journalists, and organizations across Europe and the Middle East—in an effort to help the Iranian leadership understand how counter-productive the actions of their legal system would be at a time when the United States is doing its best to open a constructive dialogue with the government in Tehran.
Part of this involved a host of direct and indirect points of contact. For myself, I refused to appear again on Press-TV—the Iranian version of France 24, Voice of America, or other government-owned broadcast outlets—until Roxana was freed and allowed to leave Iran. Clearly stung by this one-man effort, one senior producer for Press TV observed that my boycott would be “counter-productive at this time when the two governments are trying to open a dialogue.” I pointed out that even more counter-productive were the actions against Roxana, a professional journalist thoroughly innocent of the charges brought against her—who, in contravention of every known international juridical standard, was hustled through a judicial proceeding in a single day, sentenced to eight years in prison, and never allowed to examine any of the evidence against her, or allowed to confront any of her accusers.
Indeed, the entire process, cloaked in mystery, was a most unfortunate demonstration of how strained the quality of justice, let alone mercy, remains in many of the darkest corners of the world—especially Iran.
Roxana was first arrested nearly three months ago, charged with buying a bottle of wine, effectively a misdemeanor punishable by a fine. Within days, however, still in custody, the charges against her were escalated to working as a reporter without a license (hers had been suspended nearly five years ago), and finally to espionage—theoretically a capital offense.
When the law office of Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Prize-winning Iranian attorney, lauded for representing the cause of human rights in her country, sought to represent Roxana, they were denied admission to Evin prison and refused the right to serve as counsel for the courageous young journalist.
The alacrity with which the “appeals court” on Sunday reversed the decision of the Revolutionary Court, reducing the charge from conveying classified information to the less onerous “crime” of possessing it, then reducing her sentence to two years (suspended) and freeing her immediately, suggests the degree to which the judicial system can be manipulated in the interest of political or diplomatic expediency.
Several issues, however, remain cloaked in mystery. Why and how did the charges against her escalate so quickly and dramatically? What message was the Revolutionary Court trying to send—internally or externally?
Iran is in the midst of what could prove to be quite a fraught, and critical, national election campaign in which the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is fighting for his political life. Is this a message from extreme Islamists in control of the Revolutionary Court system to the moderates of what might be in store should their candidate be elected? Or is it simply a question of one hand not really knowing what the other is doing—and, in the end, reason returning to the political leadership that is indeed anxious to resume a constructive dialogue with the West, especially the United States?
Still, as CPJ executive director Joel Simon observed shortly after Roxana’s release: “This is also a moment to reflect on the difficult conditions that Iranian journalists endure every day. Several Iranian journalists remain jailed today. We urge they be given the same opportunity for judicial review that was afforded to Roxana Saberi.”
David A. Andelman is the editor of World Policy Journal and The World Policy Blog. A veteran domestic and foreign correspondent and editor of The New York Times, CBS News, and most recently Forbes.com, he is the author of A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today.