Iran should free Silva Harotonian

Published: Thursday June 04, 2009

Silva Harotonian.

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The decision of an Iranian appeals court earlier this month to release the Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi from prison was a welcome one. Ms. Saberi had been found guilty of spying, a finding that was later changed to possessing classified information.

The release of Ms. Saberi has raised hopes that an Iranian appeals court may also free Silva Harotonian, an Iranian-Armenian woman who was arrested in June 2008 and is serving a three-year prison term. We hope the court will release Ms. Harotonian.

Ms. Harotonian, a Yerevan-based employee of the U.S. government-funded International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), was arrested while on a business trip to Tehran for IREX's Maternal and Child Health Education and Exchange Program (MCHEEP). Ms. Harotonian was an administrative officer for the program, launched in 2007, and the only IREX staff member on the ground in Iran at the time.

According to a statement by IREX president Robert Pearson, her "role as a program administrator involved explaining logistics for the two-week exchange program, translating documents between Armenian and English into Farsi, and answering telephone inquiries."

Citing sources inside Tehran's Evin prison, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) reported that following 10 days of solitary confinement, Ms. Harotonian was forced under duress to claim she was part of a "plot" against the Islamic Republic.

Her first appeal was denied and her lawyers have filed a second and final one.

In a May 13 statement distributed by Fox News, Klara Moradkhan, Ms. Harotonian's cousin, who lives in southern California, 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."

Mistrust is rampant

As President Barack Obama acknowledged in his address to the Islamic world from Cairo University on June 4, the United States and Iran have "decades of mistrust" to overcome.

Iran's hostage taking during the revolution of 1978-79, its role in subsequent violence against U.S. troops and civilians, its ongoing nuclear program, and the provocative statements of Iran's president are all reasons for Americans to be concerned and suspicious.

Meanwhile, from the CIA's sponsorship of the coup d'état that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and U.S. support of the monarchy to the Bush administration's public and covert campaigns to undermine Iran's present government, the United States has given Iran reason to be concerned.

U.S.-funded projects in Iran - even those dealing with science, education, and healthcare - have come under official suspicion, with a number of individuals - mostly Iranian citizens - held and imprisoned by the government.

It appears that Ms. Harotonian is being held in prison as a way of discouraging Iranian citizens from working with American projects - even a project focused on maternal and child health. There is no indication that she did or tried to do anything that would undermine the Iranian authorities.

In Cairo, Mr. Obama stated that in relations with Iran, the United States is "willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect." We hope Iran will respond in kind.

The release last month of Ms. Saberi was certainly a healthy move. We hope the appeals court will examine the case of Ms. Harotonian in the same healthy spirit, and assess any evidence that has been adduced in a light favorable to the appellant.

The State Department on April 6 urged Iran to release Ms. Harotinian, calling the charges against her "baseless." The U.S. government can do more to support her, and we need to urge the State Department to do so.

Readers can go to freesilva.org to see how they can help.