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February 28, 2003/Adar1 26 5763, Vol. 55, No. 27
Release of Iranian Jews clouded by concerns
MICHAEL J. JORDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The release from prison of five Iranian Jews last week was due not to a change of heart by the regime in Tehran but to a political calculation that Iran's international image needs burnishing, observers say.
And clouding the relief of the Jews' relatives and advocates is concern that the men could be rearrested at any time or subjected to other forms of harassment, at the whim of the authorities.
The past days have seen conflicting statements as to whether the five have been released permanently.
Over the weekend, media reports circulated that the five had been released permanently after being pardoned by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
By Feb. 24, however, word emerged from Iranian officials that there had been no such pardon and that the prisoners had only been released on a 10-day "holiday."
The ambiguity fits Iran's traditional treatment of its Jewish prisoners.
But the question remains: Are the five free for good, or could they be returned to prison?
"It could go either way, depending on the whim of the Iranian government," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which had lobbied on behalf of the Iranian Jews.
When Iranian officials said this week that no pardon had been granted, Tehran may have been reacting to media coverage of the release. Media reports had attributed cynical motives to the release and quoted certain activists who sounded self-congratulatory.
"No government likes to look like they're responding to outside pressure," Hoen-lein said. "When you're dealing with human lives, you have to be super-sensitive to this ... We should just be happy that the five are now home with their families."
An array of factors appear to have influenced Iran's decision to release the five men, who had been imprisoned with eight others on charges of spying for Israel.
The "Iran 13," as they came to be known, became a cause celebre in the Jewish community, and their plight was taken up by international diplomats after the 13 were arrested and imprisoned in January and March 1999.
Three were found innocent of the espionage charges and released. The other 10 were sentenced in July 2000 to jail terms of four to 13 years.
Of these, five already had been released after serving some or all of their time.
Earlier this year, the remaining five were released on what Iranian officials referred to as a "vacation," but were put back in jail days before being freed again last week.
Israel has steadfastly denied that the men were its spies.
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