Iraq in Fragments Director Detained in Iran

Published at 7:30 AM on June 17, 2009

By Jeffrey Bloomer

James Longley, the American director of Iraq in Fragments, was detained in Iran by security forces after he taped an Iranian citizen criticizing the government’s handling of anti-election protests.

Longley’s translator was beaten multiple times, but the forces did not harm Longley, apparently because he was a foreigner. (The interview was destroyed in the scuffle.) You can read his full account of the incident here.

The extraordinary protests in Iran over the past several days spawned from alleged irregularities in the presidential election on Friday, which showed a major victory for the incumbent hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The protests continued on Tuesday as officials offered inquiries into the election results.

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IMDb: Iraq in Fragments

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