Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi said Iran has blocked her bid to defend a US-Iranian scholar who is jailed in Tehran on accusations of acting against national security, US media reported Friday.
Ebadi told the Washington Post that the Iranian government turned down her request to represent Haleh Esfandiari, who is accused of spying for the United States and Israel and other “crimes against national security.”
She said Iran has also refused access to the accused by a legal team and rejected requests for more information on the charges against her.
“Our goal is to inform Iranians and the international community that the government is not respecting its own laws and regulations,” Ebadi said. “Her arrest was illegal.”
Iran announced on Tuesday that Esfandiari, who works for the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, was jailed in Tehran’s Evin prison on May 8 after being prevented from leaving the country for several months.
“I’ve known her for many years, and I know she is innocent,” Ebadi was quoted as saying.
Esfandiari, who has lived in the United States for more than 25 years, has been barred since December from leaving Iran, after returning to visit her ailing mother.
Her passport was confiscated and she was subjected to interrogations by intelligence agents before being arrested last week.
The Iranian hardline newspaper Kayhan said last week that Esfandiari is an “Israeli intelligence service agent” who sought to bring about a “Velvet Revolution” in Iran and “could be categorized as a media and academic spy.”
The US State Department has condemned Esfandiari’s arrest and human rights groups have called for her release.
