From the Walrus:
The good news is that Ramin Jahanbegloo has been released on bail from an Iranian jail. The bad news is that it apparently required a bogus confession (yes, I'm making a value judgment here) and a prohibition against communicating with foreigners of any kind, especially the media.
Of course, after the Kazemi case, Canada is not on great terms with Iran. Things took a turn for the worse when the new Conservative government actually tried to do something with regards to her murder, instead of just holding news conferences:
Canada doesn't exactly have any big sticks to beat Iran with in this kind of case, but the Foreign Minister, Peter MacKay, did take the highly unusual step in June of asking Germany to arrest Iranian Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi, an Iranian official implicated in the murder of the photojournalist, should he set foot in Germany on the way home from Geneva.
Iran did not appreciate the gesture and Mortazavi took a direct flight home.
Bill Graham, now interim leader of the Liberal Party, and minister of Foreign Affair at the time of Kazemi's murder by Iranian authorities while in captivity, couldn't figure out a way to even just irritate the Iranians. I'd like to think that Jahanbegloo's release was won in small part because Iran knows that Canada is now led by a government which is not concerned about irritating people. Irritate the right people with the right connections, and things happen.
