Did anyone notice that Iran convicted the two male hikers, and sentenced them to 8 years?Nobody should be surprised. Talk about your fascist dictatorships, that suppress women, free speech in every way, oppress the people, eliminate education by decree (shades of "Communism"), sorely limit the right to travel, crush the right to peacefully assemble to petition the government for redress of grievances, and feel free to shoot down people simply standing on the sidewalk. Neda. These are National practices.
There will be efforts to get them out, and they may be gotten out; we will see. But considering that the crime, if there was one, was wandering across the border while hiking, or if the people in the village nearby are correct, the soldiers from Iran came across the border and captured them, this is a political lynching. Not unexpected from Iran. There was no war going on. There was no "state of emergency" between Iran and Iraq. The three were not armed, and Iran didn't claim they were armed. They did not claim to find any clandestine material or tools on them. Just hiking stuff. There was no evidence, just the bald claim, which Iran validated with their bald claim.
I saw a few programs last night about three men who were let out of prison last week, one from death row. They were convicted 18 years ago of murdering three 8 year olds. They were teenagers at the time, one a little strange, and the other two teenagers. There was no evidence to tie them to the dead children, to the scene of the crime, or anything else. One of the boys was pressured by the police to confess. He said what they told him to say, and said that the other two boys committed acts against the children also. At trial, all three said they were innocent, and the boy who confessed said the police forced him to confess.
Last week, after two movie stars put up the money to test a single hair found at the scene, it belonged to none of the three convicted, but the step father of one of the dead boys it was not found on, the three were told they could go home if the said there was enough evidence to convict them. To get the one man off death row, they agreed, and all went home. Case closed.
That is what this Iran/hikers case reminds me of. There is no evidence to tie them to the crime charged. It makes Iran look like the shabby criminals that they are.
Now you can start pointing fingers, and come to the defense of poor, mislabeled, abused Iran.
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