IRAN CONVICTS ECONOMIST FOR ACCEPTING FOREIGN FUNDING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 IRAN RPO DUBAI 000028

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/25/2017
TAGS: ECON PGOV PREL SCUL IR
SUBJECT: IRAN CONVICTS ECONOMIST FOR ACCEPTING FOREIGN FUNDING

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CLASSIFIED BY: Jillian Burns, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office - Dubai, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (d)

1.(C) Summary. Iranian economist and journalist Ali Farahbakhsh
was arrested at Tehran airport after returning from an economic
conference in Thailand in November 2006, according to Iranian
press. An opposition blog said he was "located" in Evin Prison
40 days after his arrest. He was accused of espionage,
investigated, tried, and finally sentenced to three years in
prison for receiving $2,300 from outside agencies - an amount
that Farahbakhsh reportedly claims was paid to him to cover his
trip expenses. A close IRPO contact, who claims to be a good
friend and former university classmate of Farahbakhsh, said that
Farahbakhsh is not a political activist. He is, said the
contact, an economist who speaks his mind - but one that maybe
should "think twice" before actually sending his analysis to
print. IRPO Dubai recommends that Farahbakhsh's case be
included in any upcoming press statements on human rights or
press freedom in Iran. At the same time, we recommend against
singling out his case or inferring that he is a political
activist. To our knowledge, it was likely his frank economic
criticism of government policy that landed him in trouble. It
is also troubling for our own exchange programs that Iranians
are being prosecuted for accepting funds for international
travel. End Summary.

The criminal case against Farahbakhsh
--------------

2.(U) Ali Farahbakhsh, an economist and journalist for now
banned reformist dailies Yas-e Now and Shargh, was arrested in
Tehran airport after returning from an economic conference
reportedly organized by an NGO in Thailand in November 2006.
(Note: Amnesty International reported that he attended a
conference on government and the media, while other sources
specify it was an economic conference. No further information
is known. Endnote). Farahbakhsh was detained without charge
and his family was reportedly not informed of his whereabouts
for several weeks. On January 22 Advar News released a portion
of a letter that the wife and parents of Farahbakhsh sent to
Judiciary head Hashemi Shahrudi. The letter accused the
Judiciary of keeping Farahbakhsh in solitary confinement for 44
days before transferring him to a general cell, despite the fact
that he had not been charged with any crime, and that he had not
been given access to an attorney. The letter also claimed that
Farahbakhsh developed serious digestive problems and "bleeding
of the stomach" due to the "unpleasant mode of interrogation."
Farahbakhsh was, according to the family, threatening to go on a
hunger strike unless he was given an explanation for his
detention - something that the family was deeply concerned about
due to the seriousness of his health condition.

3.(U) Less than two weeks later, on January 31, the Iranian
Labor News Agency (ILNA) announced that Farahbakhsh had an
attorney and was charged with espionage for passing intelligence
to foreigners after taking part in a conference abroad. On
April 23, an opposition blog claimed that although Farahbakhsh
was originally accused of espionage, ultimately he was sentenced
to three years in prison for receiving $2,300 from outside
"agencies" - an amount Farahbakhsh says was paid to him to cover
his travel expenses to Thailand.

Personal insight
--------------


4. (C) A reliable IRPO contact, who claims to be a good friend
and former university classmate of Farahbakhsh when both were
studying economics, said that Farahbakhsh has never been
politically active. According to the contact, Farahbakhsh is an
economist by training and writes articles purely from an
economic perspective. The contact asserted that Farahbakhsh
perhaps did not exercise enough self-censorship and thought he
tended to be too outspoken in his articles. A search of OSC
yielded a 2003 editorial in Yas-e Now in which Farahbakhsh
outlined political hurdles standing in the way of executing
Iran's third economic plan, highlighting that Iran's political
system results in "extensive lack of coordination in making
decisions and in implementing plans."

5.(C) Comment. IRPO Dubai recommends that the next time the
Department makes a call for greater respect for human rights in
Iran, Farahbakhsh's case could be included, in addition to other
cases. We do not recommend spotlighting his case alone, given
that he is apparently being prosecuted for accepting funds to
travel to a foreign conference, an accusation that could be
leveled at our exchange program participants. We also recommend

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taking care not to infer that we see him as a political
activist. As far as we can tell, it was his frank criticism of
Iranian economic policy that landed him in trouble with the
government, something Iran could certainly use more of.
BURNS