You would think somebody in American media would find this worthy of reporting!!! I am including two typical samples of reporting by the media, all of them missing the crucial point.
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Iran frees reformist jailed over pro-US poll
LONDON, May 14 (IranMania) - A top Iranian reformist jailed for publishing an opinion poll stating most people wished to see dialogue resume with the United States has been freed after Iran's Supreme Court ruled he was not guilty of spying, his lawyer said Friday.
Abbas Abdi, a prominent member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), the main pro-reform party, was in 2003 sentenced to four and half years behind bars on charges including "providing information to the enemies of the Islamic regime."
Abdi's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said "the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented decision, declared that Iran and the United States were not in a state of hostilities and the differences between Iran and the United States were political differences.
"Abbas Abdi has been cleared and freed after 30 months in prison," he added, saying the Supreme Court's five judges were "unanimous" in their ruling to free one of Iran's most high-profile prisoners.
Nikbakht, who has defended a string of dissidents, said the court had ruled that the charges of "cooperating with an enemy goverment were not fair" and that "the sale of information from an opinion poll ... is not covered by laws of the Islamic republic."
He said the judges also agreed that the US firm Gallup, reportedly involved in commissioning the poll, "was independent of the US government".
Contacted at his home by AFP, Abdi politely declined to make any comment.
"I prefer to say nothing, because if I do say something it would stir things up, so therefore I will shut up for the time being," he said.
In late 2002, Abdi sparked uproar among hardliners and a judicial backlash by releasing an opinion poll stating that 74 percent of Iranians want their clerical leaders to talk with Washington.
The subject of US-Iran relations is something of a taboo here, where the United States is often labelled as the "Great Satan" and crowds are encouraged to chant "Death to America".
In turn, US President George W. Bush has lumped Iran into an an "axis of evil", describes the country as the world's main sponsor of terrorism and accuses it of seeking nuclear weapons.
Ironically, Abdi was also one of the leading players in the seizing of the US embassy in Tehran in 1980 and the holding of its diplomats for 444 days. That event prompted the severing of ties between Tehran and Washington and contributed to the defeat of then US president Jimmy Carter.
Abdi's colleague at the Ayandeh polling institute, Hossein Ghazian, is still in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. But his lawyer has in recent days voiced hope that he too will be freed.
A third man tried as part of the affair was Behrouz Gheranpayeh, the head of the National Society of Public Opinion Studies. He managed to escape a prison term.
When they went on trial, the men admitted in court to committing mistakes through negligence and appealed for the chance to fix their errors. Family members and supporters have denounced their treatment in prison.
The detainees had complained of spending long periods in solitary confinement, and at one point Abdi threatened to go on a hunger strike.
Nikbakht was also the lawyer of dissident academic Hashem Aghajari, once condemned to death for blasphemy but freed last July on bail and recently spared the prospect of returning to jail.
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Now this is all that Chicago Tribune had to say:
High court tosses charges, frees activist
Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published May 15, 2005
TEHRAN, IRAN -- Iran's Supreme Court has freed a pollster from jail after rejecting charges that he sold classified information to foreign intelligence agencies, his lawyer said Saturday.
Pro-reform activist Abbas Abdi was convicted in February 2003 and was serving an 8-year prison sentence.
Abdi, a senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist party, was jailed in November 2002 after conducting a poll showing strong public support for dialogue with the United States.
A call to court officials was not returned.
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ABC News, NYT, and SF Chronicle were the only others who reported it but not in much better coverage.
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