HRW Calls Roxana Saberi's Continuing Detention in Iran Unlawful

Though I am only finding this news item now, it seems Human Rights Watch and I are in agreement that the continuing captivity of Roxana Saberi in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison is unlawful under international law, in a statement HRW made on March 13th.

Here are excerpts from the Human Rights Watch statement regarding Roxana Saberi on March 13th: Iranian officials are unlawfully detaining the Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi by holding her without charge, Human Rights Watch said today. Saberi has been in detention without charge since January 30, 2009, in the political prisoners' section of Tehran's Evin prison.

Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian authorities to immediately release the journalist they promised to free, or immediately bring her before a judge to review her detention in a public hearing, with the power to order her release.Her father, Reza Saberi, says that authorities alleged that she had purchased wine, against the law in Iran, a year ago. However, after six weeks of detention, she has not been charged with any crime.Iran is violating its own laws and international laws to which it is a signatory by detaining Saberi without charge, and - until the case received international attention - without access to a lawyer or her family, Human Rights Watch said.

Roxana Saberi was in daily contact with her family in Fargo, North Dakota, until an email and phone call on January 31 went unanswered. On February 10, her father said, Saberi called her parents at about 3 a.m. Fargo time, speaking "under stress and tense" for less than two minutes. She told him, in English, that Iranian authorities had detained her for purchasing alcohol, then abruptly hung up. She then called back two minutes later and pleaded with her parents not to take any action because prison officials had told her they would release her in a few days. You can read the rest here. Somebody has to report this stuff! More of my stellar yet Patton-like reporting on the RSHC here, here, here and here. Was in the field. You can read all of my recent reporting on Iran here. BTW I just ran a Google search as follows: "Human Rights Watch" "Roxana Saberi" 2,420 hits. Yet you can go page after page after page and not find ONE major news organization reporting on this important development! It's been five days, people! How does the Google search engine work again? PageRank? And I'M at the top of the list! And for that, Dear Readers, I am eternally grateful to you all. For now I can now tell my grandchildren I was Number One on Google covering a Hostage Crisis :) All things considered, isn't it REALLY a Hostage Crisis now? Don't forget Roxana. NEVER forget Roxana. Get her back home where she belongs. Like RIGHT NOW!

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Roxana Saberi, free lance journalist for the BBC, Fox News, National Public Radio and other Western news outlets, has been arrested in Iran, her father confirms.

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