Hikers in Iran ‘espionage’ case jailed for eight years: “”

And before I begin, I know we possibly don’t know all the details but this is making Iran look plain bloody stupid.

They were hiking, admittedly in a rather unusual part of the world not much frequented by holidaymakers, but plenty of people go off wandering around the world in highly unlikely places these days. And that part of Iraqi Kurdistan is one of them.

Second they alledgedly stray across an unmarked border in a pretty remote part of the world after visiting a waterfall, a popular tourist attraction. This is obviously easily done in such remote parts of the world.

This part of the story is open to question however. They maintain they were “kidnapped” while still in Iraqi territory. Iran claims they were arrested by border guards within Iranian territory.
An American publication, The Nation, reports two villagers as saying they were accosted by Iranian authorities while on the Iraqi side of the border.

Well which one is it?

Time come clean, Iran. Were they really accosted in error by your border guards who themselves had strayed across the border into Iraq? Maybe they weren’t even border guards. The Americans are not the only ones adept at spying.

Next. Sentence passed down by “a branch of the revolutionary court.”

‘Revolutionary court?’ Come on, that is so last century, plus it sounds way too much like a kangaroo court set up with the sole intention of putting people innocent of trumped up charges up against a wall and shooting them.
I’m sorry Iran but you should really think about renaming some of these institutions. The revolution was years ago. Maybe you need a new one?

Their trial took place behind closed doors and the evidence against them has not been made public.
Possibly because it is so laughably slim someone is afraid of losing face?

And 3 years jail for entering the country illegally? Isn’t that a bit over the top? You’ve already had them in jail for 2 years is there any time off for good behaviour?

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary general of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, said it was “quite possible” the Americans had strayed into Iran by mistake. He is the brother of Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, Chief Justice of Iran, and Ali Ardashir Larijani, Chairman of Parliament of Iran.
A trio of heavy hitters who must have some very entertaining dinner conversations.

And why, Iran, do you deny their lawyer access? He hasn’t been able to see them since 2009 and he hasn’t yet been advised of the sentence you have just passed down. You call that justice? Eh?

We know you’ve got guns but that’s no excuse for behaving like some tin pot cowboy outfit.

I’m damn sure US intelligence can get spys into the country in a far less obvious way than have them traipse across open country dressed as American gap year students.

As I say, we don’t know all the details, but the way Iran is behaving in this matter just makes any sensible free thinking citizen of the world very very angry.