September 04, 2007

Second Academic To Be Released From Iranian Prison

Just after Haleh Esfandiari departed Iran after being released from a prison there, an official in Tehran announced that another U.S.-Iranian scholar would also be allowed to leave on bail.

Kian Tajbakhsh had been detained since May, charged with using his academic connections to try to incite a "velvet revolution" in Iran -- the same charges leveled against Esfandiari, who survived eight months of captivity, including 105 days of solitary confinement in the Evin prison, by exercising religiously and composing a biography of her grandmother in her head.

In an interview with the Washington Post, her first public statements since she left Iran for Austria to be reunited with her family, Esfandiari detailed the conditions of her captivity. She was released on bail two weeks ago, and she is expected to return to her home in Potomac, Md., after taking some time in Europe.

"Once they arrested me and I got over the shock, I decided either I survive or break down. To sit and think all the time was going to kill me, so I developed a schedule," she told the Post.

The 67-year-old scholar and member of the Woodrow Wilson Institute, who has dual citizenship, was visiting her mother in Iran when she was robbed of both her U.S. and Iranian passports and subsequently arrested when she tried to apply for new ones. The Iranian government charged her with "crimes against national security" and accused her of trying to foment a "velvet revolution."

Lee Hamilton, the president of the Wilson Center and a member of the 9/11 commission, petitioned Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini for Esfandiari's release and said he was "elated" that she is now allowed to leave Iran.

But Esfandiari's journey may not be over. Although she was released from the prison, she was not cleared of charges. Her current legal status is still unclear. Three other American citizens are also still detained or missing in Iran.

The broader implications of Esfandiari's detention are still resonating in the international community. Slate points out that it's impossible to divorce the Iranian government's actions from an "announcement made by the CIA in May that the United States is actively recruiting Iranian-Americans who, in the words of one intelligence officer, 'have links with their families at home,' and who could be 'a good two-way source of information.'"

(Photos courtesy of the Woodrow Wilson Institute and the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network)

Posted at 1:40 PM
Posted to: Iran, Middle East
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