OTTAWA - Liberal MP Dan McTeague says sources in Iran have told him that Maziar Bahari, a Canadian journalist detained in Tehran, has been acquitted of all minor charges against him.
McTeague says sources close to this case say Bahari, accused by Iranian government of being a spy, successfully defended himself in a trial on August 12, 2009.
A filmmaker and Newsweek magazine correspondent, Bahari, 42, had been on assignment in the country covering the presidential elections when he was arrested June 21 in a widespread post-election crackdown.
McTeague says the only thing delaying Bahari's release now is a guarantee by the Canadian government that the journalist "was at no time involved with any official Canadian government activity within Iran."
Ottawa has repeatedly said it is doing all it can to win Bahari's release. But the journalist's pregnant wife -- Paola Gourley -- told The Canadian Press last month she was frustrated that Canada seems unable to sway Iran into releasing her husband.
Gourley said she's "so desperately sad" to think that Bahari might not be there for the expected November birth of their child.
