The sentence for Kian Tajbakhsh was the longest prison term yet in a mass trial of more than 100 opposition figures, activists and journalists in the post election turmoil.

The longest sentence so far, yet news accounts offer no explanation as to what Mr. Tajbakhsh did to deserve arrest, let alone a 12 year sentence. Apparently he was arrested at his home, not at a demonstration. News of his sentence was coupled with reports of lenient treatment given to a Canadian citizen:
At the same time, Iran allowed another defendant to leave the country--Canadian-Iranian Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek journalist arrested in the same crackdown who had been freed on bail over the weekend.

Bahari joined his British wife, who is in the last days of her pregnancy, in London, Newsweek said on its Web site Tuesday.
It could be a coincidence. But news accounts certainly raise a question whether the mullahs are publicly sticking their finger in the Obama administration's eye, letting a Canadian go . .

while sentencing an American to 12 years for doing nothing, as far as we know, that could plausibly be regarded as illegal.

The Obama administration has shown great solicitude for citizens of foreign countries who have been captured on the battlefield while attacking American soldiers. Can the administration work up a similar level of concern for an apparently innocent American citizen who has been made a pawn by Iran’s extremist leaders? We’ll see. It would be a departure for Obama’s administration to actually try to advance American interests or defend American citizens.

H/T Tom McGuire

Terrible, 12 years of what I wonder? How will be be treated?