Canadian City TV on Jahanbeglou:
Canadian scholar in Iranian jail, accused of spyingCTV News and Current Affairs Mon 08 May 2006 Time: 07:12:55 ET Network: CTV
MICHAEL IGNATIEFF (Liberal MP): This is an important case that all Canadians should watch with great concern. He is a scholar, he's a teacher, he's an activist. I urge the Iranian authorities to release him as soon as possible.
[Taped segment ends]
O'REGAN: Liberal member of Parliament Michael Ignatieff is calling on the Iranian government to release his friend Ramin Jahanbegloo. Jahanbegloo was detained about two weeks ago in Iran on what authorities there are calling espionage charges. The prominent scholar, who holds both Canadian and Iranian citizenships, is said to be imprisoned in Iran's infamous Evin prison, the same jail where Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was held in 2003, then later tortured and killed. Our next guest survived a horrible stay there as well. Reza Baraheni joins us right now. The former president of PEN Canada, which I should mention as well, which defends freedom of expression around the world.
Thank you very much for joining us. It's an honour.
BARAHENI: Thank you very much for asking me to come.
O'REGAN: What are you hearing about his situation right now?
BARAHENI: He was arrested on the 27th of April. And he has been held in the Evin prison. It is the most horrendous prison, one of the most horrendous prisons, in the world.
O'REGAN: How bad is it?
BARAHENI: First of all, you do not see the inside sometimes because you are always blindfolded. And wherever you go you're blindfolded. And sometimes the interrogations are also taking place, you know, --
O'REGAN: Within earshot.
BARAHENI: Yes.
O'REGAN: As are the executions?
BARAHENI: As the executions. When I was there -- this was in 1981-82 -- sometimes we could hear, you know, shootings taking place at night. Particularly the last minute that we would, you know, sit down and count. And it had a tremendous, you know, I mean a horrible effect on the minds of most of the people who were in the prison. But I think we have to do everything we can. And I'm glad that some of the organizations have started. PEN Canada has started to do something about it. And Amnesty International and other organizations. These are very good things. He has got to be reintroduced to the world. He has done a great deal of work. By training he is a philosopher. But at the same time he's done a great deal on political philosophy and political thinking. As a young man, as a young professor and teacher, he's been very influential writing most of the time, and simplifying modernity for the Iranians, to a certain degree, acting more or less like a bridge between the West and East. And at the same time, thinking very deeply about what has been happening among the intellectuals, whether Islamic intellectuals or the secular intellectuals --
O'REGAN: He's been held under espionage charges.
BARAHENI: Yes.
O'REGAN: You've been there, you've been in this prison, you've heard dubious charges like this being levelled against journalists or academics around the world. How angry should we be?
BARAHENI: I think that any person who's been highly educated in the West and is also talking about Western ideas and would like to see some kind of democratization in the country, generally they are prone to be labelled as spies. And I don't think that there would be any evidence that Ramin Jahanbegloo would be a spy. I'm quite sure of that. And I think there are also very bad signs of some times because the minister of the Iranian information -- that is, intelligence -- is actually the person who was involved in the serial killings of the Iranian intellectuals in 1998.
O'REGAN: Really.
BARAHENI: And he was the person who actually announced that we are holding him and he is now with us. So, the government has announced it. And it's important to know that.
O'REGAN: Indeed. And we thank you for giving us insight into the man and insight into the horrific conditions that you endured and he's enduring. Thank you very much.
BARAHENI: Thank you so much.
Canadian scholar in Iranian jail, accused of spyingCTV News and Current Affairs Mon 08 May 2006 Time: 07:12:55 ET Network: CTV
MICHAEL IGNATIEFF (Liberal MP): This is an important case that all Canadians should watch with great concern. He is a scholar, he's a teacher, he's an activist. I urge the Iranian authorities to release him as soon as possible.
[Taped segment ends]
O'REGAN: Liberal member of Parliament Michael Ignatieff is calling on the Iranian government to release his friend Ramin Jahanbegloo. Jahanbegloo was detained about two weeks ago in Iran on what authorities there are calling espionage charges. The prominent scholar, who holds both Canadian and Iranian citizenships, is said to be imprisoned in Iran's infamous Evin prison, the same jail where Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was held in 2003, then later tortured and killed. Our next guest survived a horrible stay there as well. Reza Baraheni joins us right now. The former president of PEN Canada, which I should mention as well, which defends freedom of expression around the world.
Thank you very much for joining us. It's an honour.
BARAHENI: Thank you very much for asking me to come.
O'REGAN: What are you hearing about his situation right now?
BARAHENI: He was arrested on the 27th of April. And he has been held in the Evin prison. It is the most horrendous prison, one of the most horrendous prisons, in the world.
O'REGAN: How bad is it?
BARAHENI: First of all, you do not see the inside sometimes because you are always blindfolded. And wherever you go you're blindfolded. And sometimes the interrogations are also taking place, you know, --
O'REGAN: Within earshot.
BARAHENI: Yes.
O'REGAN: As are the executions?
BARAHENI: As the executions. When I was there -- this was in 1981-82 -- sometimes we could hear, you know, shootings taking place at night. Particularly the last minute that we would, you know, sit down and count. And it had a tremendous, you know, I mean a horrible effect on the minds of most of the people who were in the prison. But I think we have to do everything we can. And I'm glad that some of the organizations have started. PEN Canada has started to do something about it. And Amnesty International and other organizations. These are very good things. He has got to be reintroduced to the world. He has done a great deal of work. By training he is a philosopher. But at the same time he's done a great deal on political philosophy and political thinking. As a young man, as a young professor and teacher, he's been very influential writing most of the time, and simplifying modernity for the Iranians, to a certain degree, acting more or less like a bridge between the West and East. And at the same time, thinking very deeply about what has been happening among the intellectuals, whether Islamic intellectuals or the secular intellectuals --
O'REGAN: He's been held under espionage charges.
BARAHENI: Yes.
O'REGAN: You've been there, you've been in this prison, you've heard dubious charges like this being levelled against journalists or academics around the world. How angry should we be?
BARAHENI: I think that any person who's been highly educated in the West and is also talking about Western ideas and would like to see some kind of democratization in the country, generally they are prone to be labelled as spies. And I don't think that there would be any evidence that Ramin Jahanbegloo would be a spy. I'm quite sure of that. And I think there are also very bad signs of some times because the minister of the Iranian information -- that is, intelligence -- is actually the person who was involved in the serial killings of the Iranian intellectuals in 1998.
O'REGAN: Really.
BARAHENI: And he was the person who actually announced that we are holding him and he is now with us. So, the government has announced it. And it's important to know that.
O'REGAN: Indeed. And we thank you for giving us insight into the man and insight into the horrific conditions that you endured and he's enduring. Thank you very much.
BARAHENI: Thank you so much.
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posted by Mori A. at
9:42 PM
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