WikiLeaks and Iran: How the "Tehran Trial" Killed US Exchange Programmes with Tehran
Monday, January 3, 2011 at 20:54
A telling example from the WikiLeaks documents of how "engagement" became a casualty of the post-election atmosphere in Iran....
In August 2009, less than two months after the disputed Presidential election, the Iranian authorities held a mass trial of more than 100 defendants in Tehran. The proceedings were more for show than for due legal process: unlike most hearings, they were held in public --- indeed they were televised --- and they were accompanied by a series of high-profile "confessions".
The general indictment for the trial laid out a buffet of academic, cultural, and social initiatives which now constituted a "velvet revolution". Almost any episode in which an Iranian professional had met an American or European counterpart could now be used as proof of complicity in an attempt at regime change.
Unsurprisingly, the effect of the post-election detentions and the public trials was to suspend these exchanges and discussions.