The Guardian has not deleted its article. UK 'mainstream' media are not neutral and not be trusted unless claims are independently verified

Saeed Kamali Deghani’s 2010 Guardian article about a woman executed in Iran played a significant role in setting the anti-Iran narrative of the following years. Titled “Iranian facing stoning speaks: ‘It’s because I’m a woman’”, Deghani’s “exclusive interview” relayed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s accusation that the Iranian court was lying about charges of adultery and murder. The article said that the charges were made up.

Mina Ahadi is a communist Iranian exile who serves on the committee of Atheist Alliance International. She presumably has little reason to want to help the image of Iran’s Islamic Republic. But she has posted a screenshot of Deghani’s confession. In the accompanying caption, she says that Deghani had already confessed to her in 2010, and that he had begged her not to expose him in case he was sacked and sent back to Iran.

    • sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      8 days ago

      The screenshot was a bit confusing. I thought the admission of lying was part of the guardian article which I now realize it clearly isn’t.

      Seems the guys has returned to Iran since 2026 which is around the same time that admonition surfaced.

      Much of the concern among activists is rooted in the Islamic Republic’s long-standing approach of pressuring returning individuals to act as informants. The case of Kianoosh Sanjari, an Iranian-American journalist who faced repeated pressure from intelligence agencies after returning to Iran and later took his own life in November 2024, is often cited as a stark example of the risks tied to the state’s security system for those who go back.

      https://iranwire.com/en/news/151675-activists-alarmed-as-ex-guardian-journalist-reappears-in-iran/

      The admission is not surprising, the surprising part is that he had returned to Iran at all.

      • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        28·
        8 days ago

        Between 2013 and 2014, he also worked with IranWire.

        Just FIY almost every English site with 'Iran" in its title are paid US propaganda think thanks. Iranwire is no exception. Just pure US propaganda slop of people making up stuff and the medium publishing everything uncritically.

        Of course they have to write some bad excuse of why he returned and came clean. The biggest problem with Iranwire is this part from TheCanaray’s article.

        But she (Mina Ahadi) has posted a screenshot of Deghani’s confession. In the accompanying caption, she says that Deghani had already confessed to her in 2010, and that he had begged her not to expose him in case he was sacked and sent back to Iran.

        Which means even the accomplice says he CONFIRMED to have been lying all the way back in 2010 but he was afraid to be thrown away by the US propaganda machine and sent back to Iran if she outed him (at least that’s the excuse)