TORONTO and JERUSALEM — Bloggers worldwide are abuzz over a report that Hossein Derakhshan, a popular Iranian-Canadian writer once dubbed the Blogfather, has been arrested in Iran.

Iran's Jahan News Agency, which is said to be tied to Tehran's theocratic government, reported the arrest Monday, saying Mr. Derakhshan, 34, was suspected of spying for Israel.

Mr. Derakhshan, also known as Hoder, keeps a blog in both Persian and English. The daily blog ominously stopped publishing late last month, and between each blog and his Facebook account, there's been no online trace of Hoder since Oct. 30.

But one rival blogger, who didn't want to be identified, said the arrest was only rumour. The blogger said another blogosphere theory is that Mr. Derakhshan is holed up with friends in France, feigning his arrest.

Jillian York, a Boston-based activist who struck up an online thread to find Hoder, said everyone is wary, given the lack of concrete information regarding his whereabouts.

Other rumours include a denial of the arrest, reportedly made by Mr. Derakhshan's mother, as well as a comment from another family member who broke ranks and said the blogger had indeed been arrested.

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, which should be told when Canadians are arrested in another country, said Tehran hasn't given any notice of Mr. Derakhshan's arrest.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has not received notification of the arrest of this individual in Iran," spokesman Rodney Moore said in a statement to The Globe and Mail.

That may, however, not rule out his arrest there. The relationship between the countries has been ice cold since Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested, raped, tortured and killed in a Tehran prison in 2003.

Mr. Derakhshan is a Canadian citizen, but was born in Iran, which may not recognize his Canadian citizenship and would not then inform Ottawa of his arrest.

The Jahan News report, citing "credible sources," said Mr. Derakhshan has now "admitted" spying on behalf of Israel, which he has visited twice - once in 2006 as the guest of an Israeli blogger, and again in 2007, when he was invited to speak at a conference.

Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-Israeli political analyst and one of many Iranian Jews living in Israel who knew Mr. Derakhshan, was shocked to read of the arrest on Jahan, which he calls a "reliable" source.

"I think it was extremely unlikely that he was a spy," Mr. Javedanfar said.

"He [came to Israel] looking for an adventure. He was interested in publicity [and] I think he wanted to see what it was like on the other side - in Israel."

Mr. Derakhshan said that his visits to Israel were to "humanize" the two peoples for one another in order to prevent war.

"I want to humanize Israel for Iranians and ... show Israel that the average Iranian isn't even thinking about doing harm to Israel," he told The Jerusalem Post in 2007.

It is unclear exactly when Mr. Derakhshan travelled to Iran. He announced his planned trip on Oct. 12. He also started a new blog, http://www.HoderInIran.com, to record his move back.

Mr. Derakhshan has expressed a range of political views in years past. During his visits to Israel, he slammed Iran and praised Israel's democracy. But his recent blog posts, leading up to his trip to Iran, were very critical of the Jewish state and of U.S. foreign policy.

"Ahmadinejad's brilliant strategy of dismissing Israel and smiling to the U.S. has divided the U.S. in all levels and that's a big achievement ..." he wrote on his last English blog post on Oct. 6.

Mr. Derakhshan moved from Iran to Canada eight years ago and created his own blog in 2001. Once based in Toronto, he'd recently been living in London, England.

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