access to two mysterious Germans arrested last week in Tabriz, but nothing has been heard about the fate of the two other men apparently arrested with them—the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, the woman facing stoning.
All four men were reported arrested October 11 in the office of the lawyer, Javid Hutan-Kian. Nothing has been heard from or about the lawyer or Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, in the week since.
The Western media has ignored them and focused on the two Germans, who are something of a mystery. They have not been identified other than by their nationality. The London daily, The Guardian, said it was believed they worked for the Bild am Sonntag, a major German newspaper, but Bild am Sonntag has said nothing.
The Islamic Republic said the two Germans entered Iran on tourist visas, although journalists require special visas. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said the pair “have committed an offense. They entered the country with tourist visas and did journalistic work.”
But at another point, Mehman-Parast said, “It is not clear whether they are journalists.” He also said they were arrested “since they had links with foreign-based counter-revolutionary networks.” He did not name any group, however. At the time the four men were arrested, they were on the phone with Mina Ahadi, a dissident living in Germany, who was acting as translator for the interview in the lawyer’s office. The German on the phone told Ahadi someone broke into the office and he had to hang up.
Prosecutor Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai said, “The two Germans have acknowledged their offense, saying that claiming to be journalists was not right. They were pursuing a certain agenda.”
From the garbled comments, it appears Iran hasn’t decided whether to accuse the men of being sneaky journalists or regime opponents. Eight days after the arrests, Mehman-Parast said the German embassy could visit the men, the vocal demand of the German government for a week. But the German government has also declined to identify the pair.
The case is front page news in Germany. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has commented almost daily, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has also been queried about the pair.
The Association of German Journalists has called for the immediate release of the arrested pair without revealing their names or employer. Association President Michael Konken said the pair was arrested “to block critical coverage of human rights in Iran.”
Despite the media focus on the arrests this past week, global attention to Ashtiani’s fate continues low, as measured by the volume of names being added to the online petition at freesakineh.org. As of Tuesday, a total of 349,245 signatures had been recorded at the website, and increase of 1,425 in the preceding seven days or an average of just 200 per day. Here are the daily averages over the last 11 weeks, starting with this past week:
200
175
275
365
1,000
3,800
11,400
3,700
2,200
3,600
2,000
