WASHINGTON BRIEFING : U.S., FAMILY CONTINUE TO CALL FOR IRANIAN-ARMENIAN’S RELEASEBY EMIL SANAMYAN
5-16-u-s-family-continue-to-call-for-iranian-armen ian-s-releasePublished:
Saturday May 16, 2009
Washington, – With Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist
released this week, the family of Iranian-Armenian aid worker Silva
Harotonian urged Iranian authorities to offer her clemency as well.
In a May 13 statement distributed by Fox News, Klara Moradkhan,
Ms. Harotonian’s American cousin, suggested that "the very basis
on which Ms. Saberi was freed – Iran’s recognition that it and the
United States are not in a state of hostility toward one another –
would support Silva’s release as well under Iranian law."
Ms. Harotonian was arrested in June 2008 and was last January
sentenced to a three-year prison term. The Iranian legal system is
currently considering her second and final appeal. Ms. Harotonian
was an administrator for a U.S.-funded maternal and children’s
health program, but was charged with trying to undermine the Iranian
government; she was reportedly pressured to testify against herself.
U.S. officials have called charges against both Ms. Harotonian and
Ms. Saberi "baseless" and have called on Iran to release them.
According to media reports this week, the case against Ms. Saberi
was based mostly on a confidential document she reportedly copied
while working for an Iranian government entity several years
earlier. Ms. Saberi was initially sentenced to eight years in prison
before being released on parole.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
