Word: ebtehaj
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About two weeks ago Ebtehaj was offered his freedom if he handed over bail of $140 million-four times the amount of the contract with Lilienthal. Newspapers defied censorship to quip that the government was trying to pay off its deficit. Haughtily, Ebtehaj refused the proposition, even though his wife raised pledges for the money in less than a week. "If I am guilty, prosecute me," he said, "and if I am innocent, release...
...cannot claim to be innocent by furnishing bail." Final Compromise. The government then reduced its demand for bail to $35 million and offered to write a letter to Ebtehaj affirming his innocence and unjust arrest. Still he refused. Only when the regime's face-saving condition of bail was dropped completely did the prisoner agree to be liberated. In exchange, Ebtehaj posted a $140 million bond guaranteeing his continued presence in Teheran...
Last week everything seemed ready for the triumphal return home. Then Ebtehaj himself provoked more trouble. He demanded written assurances that the conditions of the bond permitted him to vacation at Iran's Caspian Sea resorts...
Wearily, the magistrate applied to higher authorities for permission. Until the papers arrived, Ebtehaj insisted on staying in jail, even grabbed the belt of a cop who had neglected the formality of the occasion and tried to leave Ebtehaj unguarded. Two days later he finally consented to quit his prison hospital cell, and his captors breathed a sigh of relief...
...Said Ebtehaj last week as he drove off from jail with his wife and 4½-year-old daughter: "Thus ends a tragicomic opera of Iranian justice...