I have not been following the case very closely but you present an intresting and thought-provoking parallel. I remember the jewish spies and confess I did not recall what happened to them. Do you really think she will be released? Not held for awhile. I am not sure I see what the hardliners who likely control the courts have to gain.

Thanks for the post.

News is that Ahmadinejad, along with whatever faction of the government it is that controls the state news agency IRNA, is either actually putting real pressure on Tehran's prosecutor general to go easy, (Saeed Mortazavi, a known hard-line conservative,) or is wanting to appear that they are putting real pressure:

Iranian President Asks Court to Reconsider Spy Case By NAZILA FATHI, New York Times, April 19

TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a rare effort to intervene in the justice system, urged Tehran’s chief prosecutor on Sunday to fairly examine the cases of an Iranian-American journalist and an Iranian-Canadian blogger....

Mr. Ahmadinejad, who will be attending an international conference on racism on Monday and is expected to seek re-election in June, may be seeking to cast himself as a defender of human rights, analysts said. He may also be trying to prevent radical forces from sabotaging a possible reconciliation between Iran and the United States....

In Mr. Ahmadinejad’s letter, he urged Tehran’s prosecutor general, Saeed Mortazavi, to examine the cases fairly, the official IRNA news agency reported. Although the court’s workings are secret, Mr. Mortazavi, known as a hard-line conservative, would be the one to at least oversee the prosecution of both cases.

The letter was written by the president’s chief of staff, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, on behalf of the president, who left Tehran for Geneva on Sunday to attend the United Nations conference on racism.

“At the president’s insistence, you must do what is needed to secure justice and fairness in examining these charges,” the letter said, IRNA reported. “Take care that the defendants have all the legal freedoms and rights to defend themselves against the charges and none of their rights are violated.”

Iran’s president has no direct authority over the courts — the Constitution prescribes separation of powers — and it was not clear what effect his letter would have.

Analysts here suggested the letter’s intent may have been to stake out a political position before the June 12 election, where he would face liberal opposition and may want to inoculate himself against criticism on the human rights front.

One analyst, Alireza Rajaee, said that he might be looking past the election to a possible bid to improve relations with the United States. In a conciliatory speech last week, responding to overtures by Mr. Obama, he said that Iran would welcome change by the United States.

“He wants to present himself as a man eligible for international talks and also dialogue with the United States,” Mr. Rajaee said. “He is confident that he will win another term and wants to send a positive signal inside the country and to make sure that talks with Washington will proceed.”...

The analysts the Times interviewed are pointing out the more obvious, that this move by Ahmadinejad is election-related, however, they don't bring up the part where Ahmadinejad's letter is also being "advertised" by IRNA. I know from reading IRNA over the years that if those basically "in charge" of the country don't want a story seen by the public, it won't be covered by IRNA. IRNA does pro-government agitprop, that's what it's there for. If it's being covered by IRNA, pressure on that prosecutor (and his hard-line friends) to change his ways has got strong backing.

The question to ask is whether the prosecutor had been working along the lines of thinking he was doing a good job of going along with the government's bidding but just recently has been informed all of a sudden that he's not, because of further intervention by the U.S. State Dept. and statements by Clinton and Obama. Only a day or two ago the official response was still "how dare you U.S. running dogs say anything?" Why did that change all of a sudden? The change can't just be the personal political agenda of Ahmadinejad alone, not with IRNA supporting it.

Note that the Iranian-Canadian blogger mentioned in the letter is Israel-related:

Mr. Derakhshan, a high-profile blogger, traveled to Israel in 2007 and had written about it on his blog. In November, a Web site affiliated with the Intelligence Ministry reported that he had been accused of spying for Israel, but no formal charges have been reported.

And that there are some interesting quotes from a telephone interview with Ms. Sabieri's father at the end of the article about the trial itself.

More speculation on it being about the Iranians held by U.S. in Iraq. If correct, the new backtracking on their part would then be because they realize that using her as a bargaining chip with the Obama administration has failed,

Iran Careful in Response to US Criticism of Saberi Case

By Edward Yeranian, Cairo, Voice of America, April 20:

...In what may be a sign that Iran is eager not to derail a nascent dialogue with the United States, the country's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi is ordering a quick and fair appeal process for U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi

...Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said President Obama should not pass judgment without knowing the details of the case. He says he advises not to comment on a lawsuit until its content is revealed. He says fortunately the Iranian judicial system has paid full consideration to the process of retrieving rights, such as the right of appealing a verdict in higher judicial references, and this right has also been reserved for Ms. Saberi and her lawyer.

Responding to criticism Saberi had not been able to consult her attorney at all stages of her trial, Qashqavi insisted she would have access to him. He says that the ongoing judicial process regarding her case has been in full accordance with the law, and that includes granting her access to her lawyer.

Iran's Press TV reported that Qashqavi also urged the United States to release five Iranians arrested by U.S. forces in Kurdistan in 2007. Iran claims that the five, who belong to the elite al-Quds Forces, were "abducted."

Iran experts say Tehran has been trying to pressure the United States into releasing the men by arresting dual-national scholars and journalists. Iran is believed to be holding former FBI agent Robert Levinson, in addition to several Iranian-Americans.

Also see

Iran Official Orders ‘Fair’ Appeal Review for Reporter
By Nazila Fathi, Tehran, New York Times, April 21

By the way, my comments above were posted before I knew much about Ahmadinejad's comments at the U.N. conference. It was pretty clear by looking at the IRNA site the last few days that the were going to ramp up the anti-Israel rhetoric. But what I also felt was that they had been ramping down the anti-U.S. rhetoric, as I said, IRNA seemed to be totally playing down the Saberi story, and there were few anti-U.S. stories on the news feed, atypical for them. In the old Bush days, they would have really pumped the Saberi story for domestic agitprop purposes, and they weren't doing that. Seemed they were waiting.

So here's what I thought I might be seeing:
1) an attempt to see if the administration might be open to something like trading Saberi for their guys held by us in Iraq, before they resorted to playing her up as a spy for domestic agitprop purposes.
1) an attempt to see if the Obama administration would basically be more tolerant of Israel bashing than administrations past, in which case they would attempt to tamp down domestic anti-U.S. rhetoric.

Everything they were attempting seems to have backfired big time. Still, that doesn't mean they have decided to release Saberi, they may still decide to use her, they may not, depending on what happens next.

Op-ed by a scholar of Iranian foreign policy pointing out that Obama has not refuted the covert action ordered by Bush, something which interests me as well.

The strange case of Roxana Saberi
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi,
Asia Times Online, April 23:

According to reports from Iran, Saberi was caught trying to purchase information regarding Iran's nuclear program.....

...Saberi's case raises new questions about the US government's covert actions inside Iran. Such tactics were openly admitted by the George W Bush administration and have yet to be repudiated by the new Obama team.

In 2007 and 2008, the US media were awash with reports of Bush's authorization of covert action in Iran. According to the reports, intelligence was collected on Iran's nuclear program. Last summer, journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker about Bush's authorization of covert action to destabilize Iran.

Having inherited Bush's presidential directives on Iran, Obama may have signed new directives without letting the public know about them. This can be logically deduced by the absence of any news that the White House has rescinded the past directives to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other arms of the US intelligence community, for covert action inside Iran.

In light of the distinct possibility of such a move by Obama, the Iranian government may be excused for being sensitive about alleged US espionage.

At a time when Iran is under US and United Nations sanctions and Tehran's nuclear intentions are being debated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is all but a forgone conclusion that Western and Israeli intelligence would not spare any effort to get more information about Iran's nuclear program.

Could it be that Saberi was an unwitting accomplice in the Western drive for intelligence on Iran? The possibility cannot be ruled out....

Obama's unwillingness to make a radical departure from Bush's policy of covert action does not bode well for a "new beginning" between the US and Iran. Instead, it serves only to convince Tehran that changes from Washington are merely cosmetic. A serious attempt by the White House to convince Iran's leaders otherwise should begin with a public refutation of Bush's covert action in Iran from Obama....

bio attached to article (links at the page)
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) . For his Wikipedia entry, click here. His latest book, Reading In Iran Foreign Policy After September 11 (BookSurge Publishing , October 23, 2008) is now available.

------ALSO

Shirin Ebadi has confirmed that she will join Saberi's defense team: Iranian Nobel laureate to defend U.S. journalist
CNN, April 22

That will make it difficult for Iranian leaders to use her for agitprop purposes for domestic consumption, i.e., if she is convicted, many more Iranians will not believe it is true because of Ebadi.

This from the CNN article made me laugh: The Rev. Jesse Jackson has offered to travel to Iran to help seek Saberi's release --just like old times, and it does list some of his past hostage negotiating exploits.