Briefly: Amir Hekmati, US born one-time game developer jailed in Iran since 2011 for allegedly engaging in espionage for the CIA, has been given a 10-year prison term following a secret retrial which took place in December. He had originally been sentenced to death, a ruling overturned in 2012.
Iran Secretly Convicted Former Marine, Lawyer Says [New York Times]
Comments
23 responses to “US Game Developer Sentenced To 10 Years Gaol In Iran”
What is this fall you speak of? lol
Thought Gaol was old english.
It could at least be consistent… in the first line they use “jailed”
The proper way to spell “Jail” in Australian English, is Gaol. Most people tend to spell it Jail because of American English influence.
Language is constantly changing and shifting, and I’m pretty sure the vast majority of Australians have moved away from Gaol and towards Jail.
Well, I totally forgot it was a thing, so my teacher didn’t do a very good job of communicating this important fact to me.
It is definitely still considered to be gaol in Australia. Only reason people use jail in Australia, is because of American influence, and not because of any “shift in language”.
Which is odd given that Fahey is presumably an American and definitely writing for an American site
In the american version of his article, it’s written “jail”. So either he’s trying too hard or it’s the work of an editor for the aussie site.
Outside of British English and proper nouns (and this article), I haven’t seen it spelled Gaol in a long time.
It’s written on the front sign of every gaol in Australia.
There is no operational gaol in all of Australia if Wikipedia’s list of Australian prisons is to be believed. No jails either for that matter; they are all prisons and centres (amongst other labels here and there).
Every gaol left in the country is a museum, so it kinda makes sense that they’d use the older spelling.
I can’t reply to your older message. List is too long. Officially the names might have been changed. I’ve been to several prisons in NSW and they all have a sign that say “[Place Name] Gaol” at the entrance. Granted this was a few years ago, they may have replaced the signs.
The reason I use “jail” is that I think G makes a hard sound when placed next to an A.
No we haven’t.
I know I don’t speak for all Australians, but I don’t think you do either. As I stated above, the only gaols left in Australia are museums, where it makes sense to use the older spelling. My other piece of evidence is no Australian newspapers use gaol unless referring to specific examples, which would be proper nouns only one spelling is correct no matter what variant of English you’re using.
No, that is how one, would actually spell gaol.
Flock of Seagulls!
Meanwhile, dozens of people are held by the US in a third country secret jail undergoing continual torture and having their human rights denied. Iranians, Iraqis, Afghanis.
But we should all care about this guy.
We should all care about all those guys :/ Just because some people doesn’t care about the people you mention, means that we should similarly abandon all other people in similar circumstances?
Not what I was getting at.
This poor guy has had his case taken up by American games outlets quite a bit due to his onetime role as a dev. This humanises his story, makes him relatable, and only barely includes a mention of his CIA involvement.
What were the prior employments of the guys locked away in US hell holes? We don’t know. They’re specifically dehumanised in an attempt to stop people caring. If one of them was involved with Iran’s fledgling games industry, would we read articles about US secret trials? Unlikely.
Secret US trails?
They weren’t so lucky.
Generally, if you are a foreigner (even an Iranian born outside of Iran) and are put up on charges, the Judge will look down at his list and check a box:
#1 Involvement in spying for CIA. [ ]
#2 Trying to overthrow the Government. [ ]
#3 Any or all of the above. [ ]