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Iranian-Canadian blogger arrested in Tehran
by Scott Gilbreath ~ November 19th, 2008
An Iranian-born blogger who holds dual citizenship with Canada has been arrested in Tehran and charged with spying for Israel. Hossein Derakhshan, known as the godfather of the Iranian blogosphere (or “Blogfather”), returned to his homeland about three weeks ago.
A prominent Iranian blogger, nicknamed the Blogfather for spawning Iran’s spectacular blogging revolution, has been arrested in Tehran and accused of spying for Israel.
Hossein Derakhshan, who was last based in London after spending several years in Canada, returned to live in his homeland a few weeks ago.
He wrote that he “LOVES living in Tehran again” in his most recent posting nearly a month ago. He was “frustrated by slow internet connection, but generally impressed”.
Travelling on a Canadian passport, he made a highly publicised trip to Israel in 2006 on a mission to show his “20,000 daily Iranian readers what Israel really looks like and how people live there”. He also wanted to “humanise” Iranians for Israelis.
Mr Derakhshan’s arrest at this time seems odd because his recent blog posts have been strongly pro-Iran and anti-Israel. If convicted of spying, he could face the death penalty.
In a post from Israel in January 2006, he acknowledged that the visit broke a “major taboo”.
Derakhshan is credited with designing a simple way to display Persian letters online, paving the way for the emergence of Iran’s rich and vibrant blogosphere. Today, Iran’s percentage of internet users is second only to Israel among Middle Eastern countries.
In related news today, the Iranian government admits blocking access to 5,000,000 websites and censoring several million more.
h/t: Global Voices Online
UPDATE (20 Nov.): Annie Lessard informs us in the comments that the “generally reliable” anti-mullah blog Iran Resist regards Derakhshan as an agent of the regime.
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November 19th, 2008 at 05:59 PM
Now do I get hits from Iran? Wonder if I made the 5,000,000?
Death penalty, don’t tell the CHRC,…
November 19th, 2008 at 10:25 PM
The web site Iran-Resist, generally reliable (the voice of resistance to the Mullah regime), has another version of the story of this blogger. In 2006, they posted: The Hossein Derakhshan’s trap
http://www.iran-resist.org/article3530.html
Excerpts:
“The denunciation of fake opponents has become from necessity our daily sport. In order to not depart from old habits we are going to study the case of Hossein Derakhshan who lives in Canada.”
“In spite of his presence in Canada since a long time, Hossein Derakhshan does not fool the Iranian community which is aware of his activity as agent for the Teheran’s regime. He had also published a webblog to take the defence of Iranian bloggers in order to trap them and those who supported them. It was required to write down their own name to profit by the campaign for the defence of free webblogs in Iran! But in reality, a lot of persons who had innocently and naively written their real name on the website, have been picked out by the regime.”
“With the Hossein Derakhshan’s trap, they denounced themselves. Those who leave a family in Iran have had to be afraid for their parents because the mullah’s regime chastises the father or the brother instead of the rebel. By carrying the trap farther, he posed as a Canadian photographer and wanted to exhibit photo of the same persons who registered on his webblog. By this way, the information ministry owns now a “press book” containing the Toronto’s exiles.”
….
“Derakhshan which means shining in Farsi bears well his name and win the palm: he does not only nothing against the mullahs but also he defends their nuclear nationalism business!”
November 20th, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Thanks for the info, Annie. The post has been updated accordingly.
November 21st, 2008 at 03:28 PM
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