Arrested for flying to Brussels

Daniel Drezner comments on the arrest of Iranian scholar Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo.

One of our invited guests to the Brussels Forum, Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo, never made it to the event as he was detained by the Iranian authorities on the way to the airport to fly to Brussels. Dr. Jahanbegloo is a well-known Iranian intellectual and human rights advocate who currently heads the Cultural Research Bureau in Tehran.
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At the time of his arrest, he was working on a study of Ghandi and peaceful resistance.
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“The arbitrary arrest of Ramin Jahanbegloo shows the perilous state of academic freedom and free speech in Iran today,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This prominent scholar should be celebrated for his academic achievements, not interrogated in one of Iran’s most infamous prisons.”

Damn. Ghandi-studying resistance fighters are what Iran needs right now.