JTF.ORG Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dr. Dan on August 12, 2008, 06:48:14 PM
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Except "Mitzraim" means Galut..and in this specific article, Iran.
August 11, 2008
After Four Years in Iranian Custody, a Queens Man Is Almost Home
By MARC SANTORA
Nearly three decades had passed since Yaghoub Khezri fled his native Iran in 1978, on the eve of the Islamic revolution, to begin a new life in Forest Hills, Queens.
It was in New York that he watched his children have children of their own, as his past receded further and further.
But the old memories kindled the faint hope that he could return one day.
So when, in 2004, some old business partners from Tehran reached out to Mr. Khezri and told him it was safe to come back and claim property that had been seized by the government, the lure — both financial and emotional — proved more powerful than any fears about what might happen if he returned.
And at the age of 81, it was most likely his last chance to see Iran.
Almost as soon as he landed in Tehran, however, Mr. Khezri found himself at the center of a nightmare. He was arrested, and at first faced charges that carried a possible death sentence. Eventually, he was convicted of "womanizing" and "immoral acts" and sentenced to three and half years in prison and 99 lashes.
On the day he was convicted, April 7, 2005, Mr. Khezri wrote a short statement on the sentencing document. "I will be in this hellhole for 42 months," he wrote. "God help me. Death would be better than this."
Mr. Khezri did not die.
After four years of struggle and uncertainty, tireless advocacy by his family and friends, the efforts of American officials, and an untold number of bribes, Mr. Khezri, now 86, finally was able to leave Iran and was to return to New York on Wednesday.
Even as many questions about his case remain unanswered, his harrowing story provides a glimpse into a society where notions of justice can leave an elderly man beaten so badly that he can now barely walk.
Mr. Khezri arrived in Switzerland last month. The effects of his imprisonment have left him traumatized, and his family fears that he is beginning to develop Alzheimer's disease, his son Bijan Khezri said. He added that an interview could not be arranged.
"My mother told me this many times over the phone: Don't be surprised when you see your father," said Bijan Khezri, who lives in Queens. "This is not the same man. He has grown very weak, very fragile."
Krista Errickson, a journalist and documentary maker who has known the Khezri family for years and has worked in Iran, has been involved in the effort to bring Mr. Khezri back to the United States since the spring.
"This is an innocent man who was put through hell," she said. "Some people say you are stupid, why would you go back? Iranians miss their homeland, and sometimes they just want to go back to see it."
Ms. Errickson, who is working on a documentary about the case, said Mr. Khezri may have been set up so that others could somehow make a profit if he were out of the picture.
Bijan Khezri said the property his father was going back to claim was probably worth a little more than $1 million.
But even before he could work out any deal concerning his property, Mr. Khezri was placed under house arrest and asked if he was a spy for Israel.
This is where the story becomes shadowy. Mr. Khezri is Jewish, although it is unclear what role religion played in his ordeal.
Some 25,000 Jews live in Iran, the largest Jewish population in the region outside of Israel.
The government insists that it makes a distinction between Zionists and Jews of Persian descent.
But the relationship between Iranian Jews and the Islamic republic is complicated, said Roya Hakakian, an Iranian writer in the United States who has delved into Jewish-Iranian issues.
While there are a number of high-profile cases in which Jews have been arrested on trumped-up charges, the discrimination is more often indirect and subtle, she said.
"They started instituting rules in favor of ideological Muslims," she said. "That led Jews and other minorities to start losing ground."
In 1999, 13 Iranian Jews in the city of Shiraz, one of them a 16-year-old boy, were arrested and accused of espionage. The case drew international condemnation, and 10 of the Jews were convicted on lesser charges.
Ms. Hakakian said she thought that if Mr. Khezri had been arrested because he was Jewish, he probably would have been charged with espionage.
While Mr. Khezri's family said that his interrogation initially centered on accusations that he was an Israeli spy and a supporter of the United States, he ended up being convicted for "womanizing" and "immoral acts."
Soon after he was convicted, he had to endure 99 lashes.
"All of the lashes are administered at once," Ms. Errickson said. "First they whip the legs, the back, the neck, the feet, the hands. And then they turn you around and get you in the front."
Mr. Khezri was then kept in solitary confinement for nearly a year, according to his family.
When his sentence was over, his wife, Ghammar, 76, still had to figure out how to get him out of Iran. His United States green card had expired while he was in prison, so he was essentially a man without a country.
Ms. Errickson, aided by the State Department, was able to secure Mr. Khezri's passage to Switzerland.
Ms. Errickson also reached out to the office of Representative Anthony D. Weiner of Queens to secure a visa allowing Mr. Khezri to return to the United States.
Mr. Weiner said that he spends much of his time in his district offices dealing with immigration issues but could not recall a tale as frightening as Mr. Khezri's.
"It has a lot of elements of an unbelievable story," he said. "It is unbelievable he chose to go back. Then there is the unbelievableness of the things they chose to charge him with."
Mr. Weiner said it drove home just how corrupt Iran is, a society "lubricated with bribes and under-the-table deals."
"If he didn't have a pretty creative wife and family trying to get him out early," Mr. Weiner said, "Mr. Khezri would have died in jail."
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Except "Mitzraim" means Galut..and in this specific article, Iran.
August 11, 2008
After Four Years in Iranian Custody, a Queens Man Is Almost Home
By MARC SANTORA
Nearly three decades had passed since Yaghoub Khezri fled his native Iran in 1978, on the eve of the Islamic revolution, to begin a new life in Forest Hills, Queens.
It was in New York that he watched his children have children of their own, as his past receded further and further.
But the old memories kindled the faint hope that he could return one day.
So when, in 2004, some old business partners from Tehran reached out to Mr. Khezri and told him it was safe to come back and claim property that had been seized by the government, the lure — both financial and emotional — proved more powerful than any fears about what might happen if he returned.
And at the age of 81, it was most likely his last chance to see Iran.
Almost as soon as he landed in Tehran, however, Mr. Khezri found himself at the center of a nightmare. He was arrested, and at first faced charges that carried a possible death sentence. Eventually, he was convicted of "womanizing" and "immoral acts" and sentenced to three and half years in prison and 99 lashes.
On the day he was convicted, April 7, 2005, Mr. Khezri wrote a short statement on the sentencing document. "I will be in this hellhole for 42 months," he wrote. "G-d help me. Death would be better than this."
Mr. Khezri did not die.
After four years of struggle and uncertainty, tireless advocacy by his family and friends, the efforts of American officials, and an untold number of bribes, Mr. Khezri, now 86, finally was able to leave Iran and was to return to New York on Wednesday.
Even as many questions about his case remain unanswered, his harrowing story provides a glimpse into a society where notions of justice can leave an elderly man beaten so badly that he can now barely walk.
Mr. Khezri arrived in Switzerland last month. The effects of his imprisonment have left him traumatized, and his family fears that he is beginning to develop Alzheimer's disease, his son Bijan Khezri said. He added that an interview could not be arranged.
"My mother told me this many times over the phone: Don't be surprised when you see your father," said Bijan Khezri, who lives in Queens. "This is not the same man. He has grown very weak, very fragile."
Krista Errickson, a journalist and documentary maker who has known the Khezri family for years and has worked in Iran, has been involved in the effort to bring Mr. Khezri back to the United States since the spring.
"This is an innocent man who was put through hell," she said. "Some people say you are stupid, why would you go back? Iranians miss their homeland, and sometimes they just want to go back to see it."
Ms. Errickson, who is working on a documentary about the case, said Mr. Khezri may have been set up so that others could somehow make a profit if he were out of the picture.
Bijan Khezri said the property his father was going back to claim was probably worth a little more than $1 million.
But even before he could work out any deal concerning his property, Mr. Khezri was placed under house arrest and asked if he was a spy for Israel.
This is where the story becomes shadowy. Mr. Khezri is Jewish, although it is unclear what role religion played in his ordeal.
Some 25,000 Jews live in Iran, the largest Jewish population in the region outside of Israel.
The government insists that it makes a distinction between Zionists and Jews of Persian descent.
But the relationship between Iranian Jews and the Islamic republic is complicated, said Roya Hakakian, an Iranian writer in the United States who has delved into Jewish-Iranian issues.
While there are a number of high-profile cases in which Jews have been arrested on trumped-up charges, the discrimination is more often indirect and subtle, she said.
"They started instituting rules in favor of ideological Muslims," she said. "That led Jews and other minorities to start losing ground."
In 1999, 13 Iranian Jews in the city of Shiraz, one of them a 16-year-old boy, were arrested and accused of espionage. The case drew international condemnation, and 10 of the Jews were convicted on lesser charges.
Ms. Hakakian said she thought that if Mr. Khezri had been arrested because he was Jewish, he probably would have been charged with espionage.
While Mr. Khezri's family said that his interrogation initially centered on accusations that he was an Israeli spy and a supporter of the United States, he ended up being convicted for "womanizing" and "immoral acts."
Soon after he was convicted, he had to endure 99 lashes.
"All of the lashes are administered at once," Ms. Errickson said. "First they whip the legs, the back, the neck, the feet, the hands. And then they turn you around and get you in the front."
Mr. Khezri was then kept in solitary confinement for nearly a year, according to his family.
When his sentence was over, his wife, Ghammar, 76, still had to figure out how to get him out of Iran. His United States green card had expired while he was in prison, so he was essentially a man without a country.
Ms. Errickson, aided by the State Department, was able to secure Mr. Khezri's passage to Switzerland.
Ms. Errickson also reached out to the office of Representative Anthony D. Weiner of Queens to secure a visa allowing Mr. Khezri to return to the United States.
Mr. Weiner said that he spends much of his time in his district offices dealing with immigration issues but could not recall a tale as frightening as Mr. Khezri's.
"It has a lot of elements of an unbelievable story," he said. "It is unbelievable he chose to go back. Then there is the unbelievableness of the things they chose to charge him with."
Mr. Weiner said it drove home just how corrupt Iran is, a society "lubricated with bribes and under-the-table deals."
"If he didn't have a pretty creative wife and family trying to get him out early," Mr. Weiner said, "Mr. Khezri would have died in jail."
This was a good article. I cannot help but wonder why more Muslims do not leave Islam, especially since his treatment stems from the barbaric orders from the Koran. If this man's family does not dump Islam after what he was put through...then they are just as brainwashed as the rest of the Muslims.
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he's jewish...not muslim.
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This was a good article. I cannot help but wonder why more Muslims do not leave Islam, especially since his treatment stems from the barbaric orders from the Koran. If this man's family does not dump Islam after what he was put through...then they are just as brainwashed as the rest of the Muslims.
Did you even read the article? It says quite clearly that Mr Kezri is of Jewish descent.
This is where the story becomes shadowy. Mr. Khezri is Jewish, although it is unclear what role religion played in his ordeal.
muman613
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he's jewish...not muslim.
I am sorry, my mistake..I assumed he was Muslim because he came from Iran. My niece is married to an Iranian Jew, his family left Iran because of the persecution and they had their land stolen, their business too. Now they are all in the United States and Israel. Thank you for answering my post and the correction.
Shalom from Dox
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First off, if this Kherzi fellow was living in America for all that time, why didn't he bother becoming an American citizen?
And while I don't approve of his treatment by the Iranian thugs, I still think he was stupid to go back there.
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I'm a US citizen and gentile and I won't even go to San Francisco. I sure as heck wouldn't go to Iran if I was Jewish. Why would his family let him go at that age?
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I have to second what Lisa said--what was he thinking to want to visit that Nazi snakepit?
One thing I must say: the shah, for all his faults, really stuck up for Iranian Jewry. Whether or not it was out of pure motives, he was a good ruler to Iran's minorities.
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I have to second what Lisa said--what was he thinking to want to visit that Nazi snakepit?
One thing I must say: the shah, for all his faults, really stuck up for Iranian Jewry. Whether or not it was out of pure motives, he was a good ruler to Iran's minorities.
The Shah did try to Westernize Iran...women were not forced under the veil and Jews were treated better until the fanatical Muzzies took over. I get upset when I hear people say that the Iranians like the Americans.....this is just not true because if the Iranians liked Americans and were peaceful, they would have organized another take over and disposed of the radicals.
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One thing I must say: the shah, for all his faults, really stuck up for Iranian Jewry. Whether or not it was out of pure motives, he was a good ruler to Iran's minorities.
My family had only good things to say about the Shah.
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Yimach schmo to the pig Jimmy-hat Farter, who stabbed the shah in the back and deliberately helped Muslim Nazis take over Iran (so that they could attack Israel on his behalf).
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Yimach schmo to the pig Jimmy-hat Farter, who stabbed the shah in the back and deliberately helped Muslim Nazis take over Iran (so that they could attack Israel on his behalf).
Absolutely C.F. I pray that there is some kind of eternal justice and that Carter gets his.
That was quite a story Dr. Dan. I think I can understand the desire this man had to return to his home country to see it one last time. I don't think people really understand how much of a living hell islam is.
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Yimach schmo to the pig Jimmy-hat Farter, who stabbed the shah in the back and deliberately helped Muslim Nazis take over Iran (so that they could attack Israel on his behalf).
CF,
Are you sure Dhimmi Farter isnt a faggot? That would be convenient...
:)
muman613