Iranian-Americans charged with espionage

US academic Haleh Esfandiari and two other Iranian-Americans have been “formally charged” with endangering national security and espionage, Iran’s judiciary spokesman said today.

“Esfandiari has been formally charged with endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners,” Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said in Tehran. “She has been informed of the charges against her. The complainant is the Intelligence Ministry.”

Jamshidi did not say when the specific allegations had been read to Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Programme at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Centre for Scholars. She has been held at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison since early May.

Jamshidi said the same charges had also been lodged against Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant who has also worked for the World Bank, and journalist Parnaz Azima. No trial date has been announced and Jamshidi said the investigation against all three is continuing.

It was the first time the government has confirmed the arrest of Tajbakhsh, who was believed to have been taken into custody around May 11, according to George Soros’ Open Society Institute. Azima, who works for the US-funded Radio Farda, was detained but released and barred from leaving the country.

The Intelligence Ministry has accused Esfandiari and her organisation of trying to set up networks of Iranians with the ultimate goal of creating a “soft revolution” in Iran, along the lines of the revolutions that ended Communist rule in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Ministry has alleged that the Open Society Institute, which seeks to promote democracy, was part of the conspiracy.

Esfandiari’s family, the Wilson Centre and the Open Society Institute deny the allegations.

Under Iranian law, the distinction between someone being accused and charged is less clear than in the United States and many Western countries, especially in matters of national security. Security courts have wide latitude, with the option of dropping the proceedings at any time or even holding trials in secret.

However, Jamshidi’s statement that specific allegations had been read to Esfandiari and the others indicates the cases have been raised to a new level under the Iranian legal system.