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Six months after the arrest of three Americans, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in a television interview on Tuesday that Iran may be prepared to swap the three Americans with Iranians whom he says have been arrested by Americans in other countries. In an interview with Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said: “There are many Iranians in American prisons. They were kidnapped by the US in other countries or the US has put pressure on other countries for their arrest.” The Iranian authorities announced trials of the three individuals in recent weeks. Ahmadinejad’s new statements reveal that the Iranian government is trying to use the three individuals as a tool for applying pressure on US government to free unnamed individuals.

Considering the independence of branches within Iranian government, and as the three individuals are in custody of the Iranian Judiciary, Ahmadinejad’s statements show that the Iranian Judiciary is tarnished with politics. If the three individuals have committed any crimes, they must be tried in fair and unbiased courts based on international standards and their attorneys must be able to defend them in court. Otherwise, if the Iranian governments uses the excuse of the US government’s kidnapping Iranian citizens as justification for taking the three Americans as hostages, this will only serve as testimony to the Iranian Judiciary’s interrelationship with politics and how some individuals easily fall victim to political decisions, ... >>>