Detained journalist from North Vancouver deported to Iran
Posted May 11, 2011 7:52 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – An Al Jazeera reporter from North Vancouver has been deported from Syria to Iran. She was arrested late last month in Damascus while trying to cover violent protests.
Al Jazeera is reporting the Syria embassy says Dorothy Parvaz tried to enter Syria with an expired Iranian visa, and now she’s been extradited.
Todd Barker is his fiance; he’s not sure if the move could be a positive step or a turn for the worse. “It’s incredibly hard to speculate. There’s nothing more worrying than the fact that we haven’t heard from Dorothy since the end of April.”
He says getting in touch with Dorothy is the primary goal; he and the Parvaz family are working with Foreign Affairs and Foreign embassies in a desperate attempt to contact her, but getting details has been tough.
“They have provided a flight number,” explains Barker. “But the bottom line is we still haven’t heard from Dorothy since leaving for Damascus on April 29th.”
An expert in Mideast politics is optimistic an Parvaz will be okay.
Andre Gerolymatos with SFU says Parvaz is better off now because the situation in Syria is actually worse because of the anti-government protests. “She’s out of the clutches of various security people in Syria who, under the current conditions, may lose their temper… lose their composure and do something nasty.”
“She’s a Canadian — not an American,” he adds. “So, in some respects, this is a better thing. They tend to be very, very anti-American.”
More than 11,000 people have joined a Facebook group to support Dorothy Parvaz and her family.
