A "revolutionary court" in Iran on Tuesday sentenced Arash Sigarchi to
14 years in prison on a string of charges, including espionage and insults to various leaders, including the late Ayatollah Khomeini. His real crime: dissidence.
Because Sigarchi was a blogger, which can be a scary vocation in Iran and other autocratic states, his cause was taken on by other bloggers and the day he was sentenced was called Free Motjaba and Arash Day. (Motjaba Saminejad is another Iranian blogger who is being held by Iranian authorities, although he has not yet been charged.) They are not the only Iranians in custody because of their on-line opinions. But, according to Another Irani online, Sigarchi may be locked up because Radio Farda blew his cover.
With an annual budget of $8 million, Radio Farda is a U.S.-funded station designed, supposedly, to spread democracy in Iran, and is a twin to the Arabic language Radio Sawa.
Radio Farda interviewed Sigarchi a few days before he was summoned into court. This was supposed to be an anonymous interview, but Sigarchi claims in a letter that the station named him on the air.
If you're fluent in Farsi, you can read the original letter here. And here is Another Irani online's "quick translation":
"In truth the biggest portion of the accusations against me pertained to Radio Farda. You will be interested to know that some of it had to also do with the sounds broadcast during the time of my interview. I was doing the interview with a pen name and then suddenly they would announce that they were doing an interview with Arash Sigarchi. Believe me I placed no hope in them [Radio Farda] and I still don't ... I don't expect anything from radio stations, but it might not be a bad idea if a movement developed that familiarized them with their responsibilities to those of us who face a thousand dangers in Iran."
As Another Irani online notes: "It seems that in their haste to bring `freedom and democracy' to Iran, Radio Farda, like their benefactors in the State Department, end up endangering and undermining the very people who are capable of bringing about real change in their own societies."
Radio Farda's stupid outing of Sigarchi is penny-ante compared with the saber-rattling of the Bush Administration, but it is typical.