Iran General NewsIran holds U.S.-based academic for "security" crimes

Iran holds U.S.-based academic for “security” crimes

-

Reuters: A Washington-based academic arrested in Tehran last week is being investigated by the Intelligence Ministry for “crimes against national security”, Iranian judiciary officials said on Tuesday. By Hossein Jasseb

TEHRAN (Reuters) – A Washington-based academic arrested in Tehran last week is being investigated by the Intelligence Ministry for “crimes against national security”, Iranian judiciary officials said on Tuesday.

Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Middle East program, was arrested on May 8 and taken to Tehran’s Evin prison, the center and her family said last week.

The arrest took place at a time of rising tension between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at making atom bombs, and the conflict in Iraq.

“She is right now under the authority of the Intelligence Ministry,” judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters.

“Her crime is security issues, investigations over crimes against security are still going on,” he said.

Jamshidi did not give details but a judiciary source later told Reuters Esfandiari was suspected of “crimes against national security”, a broad legal term covering acts deemed to endanger the stability of the Islamic state.

Terrorism, spying, political unrest and assassination attempts are examples of crimes falling within this category under Iranian law. The charge could carry the death sentence.

The U.S. State Department has condemned the arrest of Esfandiari, who has dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship, and said she was among a number of U.S.-Iranians being detained by Tehran.

Last week’s statement from the center and her family also said she needed medical attention but did not say why.

Esfandiari flew to Tehran in December to visit her mother. As she drove to the airport to catch a flight back she was robbed of her belongings, including her passports, it said.

She applied for replacement Iranian travel documents and was interviewed by the Intelligence Ministry. There then followed weeks of interrogations focusing on her work for the center, it said.

The center’s president, former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, sent a letter in February to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explaining the work of the organization and seeking his help in securing Esfandiari’s return to the United States.

Hamilton was the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group which last year issued recommendations for ending the violence in Iraq, including engaging with longtime U.S. foe Iran.

The center’s Middle East program focuses on the political, social and economic developments in the region and examines U.S. interests in the region and the threat of terrorism.

U.S. officials believe Tehran may also be holding former FBI official Robert Levinson, who went missing early in March while on a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. Iran has denied this.

Latest news

 Statistics show that New Year accidents’ deaths in Iran reached 585

Ahmad Shirani, the head of the Information and Traffic Control Center of the Iranian regime’s police, announced that the...

Land Subsidence in Critical Conditions in Isfahan

Mehdi Toghyani, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), pointed to the occurrence of land subsidence in various...

Iran’s Actual Inflation Rate Higher Than Official Stats

The state-run Donya-e-eqtesad newspaper, in a report analyzing the "general sentiment" regarding inflation in 2023, has stated that households...

Iranian Workers’ Monthly $136 Wages Can’t Cover $500 Expenses

The lives of a significant portion of the Iranian population are marked by uncertainty, largely because the Iranian economy...

Iranian Nurses Earn Twice Their Wages in Ride-Hailing Services

Reza Aryanpour, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) Health and Treatment Commission, highlighted the growing trend of nurses...

Iran: Unprecedented Record of 152 Million Liters of Gasoline Consumption Per Day

On March 19, Iran set a new historical record in gasoline consumption with 152 million liters consumed in one...

Must read

Iran hangs Kurdish dissident – opposition

Iran Focus London, 9 Aug - Iran on Sunday...

Hard-line victory adds to political turmoil in Iran

Iran Focus: London, Jun. 26 – Iran’s newly-elected President...

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you