U.S. navy vet sentenced to 12 years

Michael R. White, 47 served in the U.S. Navy for 13 years and is believed to be the first American detained in Iran since President Trump took office.

White, a cancer-stricken Navy veteran from California was first detained in Iran while visiting a girlfriend, and was charged with insulting the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and posting a photo on his social media. He was sentenced to two years over the alleged insult and 10 years for the photograph. It appears the sentences are to run concurrently.

The U.S. does not have ambassadors in Iran, so the Swiss government mediates on behalf of the State Department. Government efforts to get White released could face difficulties given the fractured relationship between Washington and Tehran that sank to a new low after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year.
 
White is reported to be in a regular prison - not a state security prison, which is a good sign, but the lack of diplomatic representation makes it very difficult to have any level of communication with him.

The moral of the story is - if you travel to somewhere where a 'Supreme Leader' is in charge, you are either in outer space, or in a place you have no business being in.

Let's hope that the government can get the Swiss to convince Iran to release White, so he can return home and continue his cancer treatment.