spying one month after they were arrested for interviewing the son of the “stoning woman.”
Espionage charges against the pair had never been mentioned before. The charges were seen by some as an effort to put pressure on the German government to make concessions.
“These two Germans came to Iran claiming to be tourists,” said Malek Ajdar Sharifi, justice department chief of East Azerbaijan province, the Fars news agency reported.
“But the work of these two tourists in Iran and Tabriz and the way they reported in Tabriz show that they came for espionage,” he said.
“In fact these two came here for espionage and, thank God, they were identified and arrested…. The evidence for espionage was in their hands when arrested and they were planning a smear campaign against the Islamic Republic.”
He didn’t explain what “evidence” was in their hands at the time of their arrests or why it took five weeks to file espionage charges if such evidence were in their hands when they were arrested.
The two men have never been named by Iran or by Germany. They are believed to be reporters working for the giant Springer media empire in Germany, but Springer has declined to say anything. The reason for the strange silence is not known. But it was likely easier for Iran to charge the pair with spying when no news organization claimed them as employees.
The pair entered Iran on tourist visas, although Iran requires journalists to get special visas to work in Iran. They were arrested October 10, and most of the comments by officials until this week centered on their violating the law by working on tourist visas.
On Monday, the day before the espionage charges were announced, Iranian state-run television showed footage of the two men “confessing” they had been “tricked” into traveling to Iran, but saying nothing about espionage.
According to the Farsi voiceover of the footage, the journalists pointed fingers at Mina Ahadi, an Iranian human rights activist living in exile in Germany.
Ahadi, founder of the Germany-based International Committee Against Execution and Stoning, has been part of the global campaign to halt the impending execution of Ashtiani Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who was sentenced to be stoned for adultery.
One of the detainees was quoted as saying, “I did not have any information about this case, but Ms. Ahadi knew about it. She sent me to Iran and has gained propaganda value from my arrest. I will sue Ms. Ahadi when I am back in Germany.”
The other was reported saying, “I accept that I made a mistake. Since I had no information on the case, I was tricked by Ms. Ahadi.”
In Germany, Ahadi told Agence France Presse, “I did not send them to Iran. I spoke to them about the risks and helped them make contacts. I do not think the journalists were mistreated physically…. But they were certainly under psychological pressure.”
She said, “They have been in prison for a month,… no contact with their family, no phone contact, only once have German diplomats visited these journalists. They are under pressure.” She said she was not offended by their criticisms of her.
The two Germans were on the phone to Ahadi when they were arrested. They were in the office of Ashtiani’s lawyer interviewing the lawyer and Ashtiani’s son when police broke in and arrested all four.