The Latest from Iran (21 August): Punishing the US Hikers

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal (see 0650 and 0910 GMT)1910 GMT: Energy Watch. Minister of Energy Majid Namjoo is not a happy man: he says the Government owes $8 billion to banks and companies, and the power producers' union fears bankruptcy. Namjoo says he asked the Supreme Leader for help, but experts do not expect any government payments to the banking system and power plants in the near future.

1525 GMT: Justice Watch. A couple more snippets from the press conference of Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi (see 1400 GMT)....

Doulatabadi said the file of 15 "spies" for Israel would go to court within 10 days. Even more interesting, however, was his claim that four members of the "deviant current" --- often used as a label for the advisors around President Ahmadinejad --- would be tried soon.

1405 GMT: CyberWatch. Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance official Rohollah Momennasab has announced that regime cyber-activists have gathered in Tehran to discuss the possible damage from social networks like Facebook and Google Plus: "The first gathering of Cyber Hezbollah group, attended by Basiji forces, [discussed] Google + [as] the newest form of espionage technology in Internet."

1520 GMT: All the President's Men. Gholamreza Assadollahi, the chair of Parliament's Article 90 Commission, overseeing Government activities, has said that the Commission forwarded the file against 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi to Iran's judiciary but no verdict has been returned.

Rahimi has been accussed of involvement in a multi-million dollar insurance fraud.

1400 GMT: Justice Watch. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said today that the murderer of scientist Masoud Alimohammadi, killed by a bomb in January 2010, will be tried Tuesday. Doublatabi claimed, "The suspect in Alimohammadi's assassination traveled to Israel several times and received the necessary training in Mossad's bases."

Alimohammadi, a quantum field theorist and elementary-particle physicist, was killed as he traveled to his University office.

1225 GMT: CyberWatch. Mardomak posts video from State television of "confessions" from members of an alleged Internet network "conducting anti-religious propaganda".

1015 GMT: For the Good of the Kids. Fars reports on gender segregation in some preschool classes, with a ban on the social interaction of girls and boys.

0910 GMT: The US Hikers. Breaking its silence on the case of US nationals Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal (see 0650 GMT), Press TV reports the statement of Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi this morning, “The Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court has sentenced Shane Michael Bauer and Joshua Felix Fattal each to eight years in prison.”

Doulatabadi, confirming that Bauer and Fattal have 20 days to appeal against the verdict, said the case of Sarah Shourd --- arrested with the two men on the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and released on $500,000 bail in September 2010 --- is still open even though she has refused to return for court hearing: "She will be put on trial in absentia."

0900 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. It's been a difficult political summer for President Ahmadinejad and his right-hand man, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, but they can take heart from a poll by State broadcaster IRIB: along with the grandson of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, they are the most popular political figures in Tehran.

0850 GMT:: MediaFail. Fareed Zakaria, reportedly a leading analyst in US media on international affairs, sets a low standard by parroting the recent International Monetary Fund "report" that proclaimed the success of the Ahmadinejad Government's economic policies.

After putting out the figures --- supplied by the Iranian authorities and already overtaken by statistics offering a more accurate picture --- such as "inflation...dropped from 25% to 12% in just two years" and "growth has hit 3.2%", Zakaria's critique goes this far:

Some say the IMF's numbers can't be right.

But we have no reason to doubt their work. The fund reasserted this week that its projections were independent of the government.

The real story here is that Iran has actually begun implementing some economic reforms.

And, after some speculation on Iran's political environment, Zakaria adds the profound sentiment that Iranians and Ahmadinejad can thank the US for their economic boom: "The irony is that it's happening - in some part - because of our sanctions. Talk about unintended consequences."

0720 GMT:: Forgetting the Dead. The sister of Shahram Farajzadeh, the protester run over and killed by a police vehicle during the Ashura demonstrations of December 2009, has declared, "It's an utter shame that families of victims receive no answer, while they [the authorities] care for Britain."

Farajzadeh criticised the failure to prosecute anyone for the death of her brother.

0715 GMT: Cartoon of the Day. Nikahang Kowsar's position on the possible fall of Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi is straightforward:

0710 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Turkish artist and civil activist Ali Hedayati, of the students' journal Aydin, has been arrested in Takab.

0705 GMT: Book Corner. Following the recent ban on the classic Persian book Khosrow and Shirin, the director of Peydayesh Publications now says that the re-printing of the children’s book Bijan and Manijeh has also been postponed.

The director said, “Unfortunately the problem is that the Ministry of Culture and Guidance is not clear about the reasons or the words that cause them to censor books....Due to this ambiguity, out of 10 books that we sent for licensing to the Ministry of Culture, seven of them were audited, resulting in their scheduled publications being halted.”

0650 GMT: The distinctive news on Saturday from Iran was the eight-year sentences for espionage reportedly handed down to US nationals Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, detained in July 2009 while walking along the Iran-Iraq border.

There had been a ripple earlier this summer, exaggerating a statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, that the court proceedings would soon end with the freeing of Fattal and Bauer. In fact, they concluded --- at least for this stage --- after a couple of brief hearings in the trial with the lengthy punishments. Now attention moved to the Court of Appeals, to see if the sentences are reduced or waived.

There is still some mystery over developments, however. While Iranian State TV broadcast the news of the sentences, it does not seem to appear on the front page of the State news agency IRNA, and there is no mention on the English-language outlet Press TV, which prefers the claim of Tehran's armed forces, "Enemies Discouraged from Attacking Iran". The lawyer for the two men, Masoud Shafiee, says he has not been formally notified by the court.