The statement from the country’s judicial branch dashed hopes of any imminent breakthrough in the case, after Iran announced last month that it was in the final stage of its probe and would announce whether the dual U.S.-Iranian nationals would be tried or freed within two or three days.
The two Americans are Haleh Esfandiari, a Potomac resident and director of Middle East programs at the Smithsonian’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Kian Tajbakhsh, a New York-based social scientist.
Both have been charged with unspecified “crimes against national security.”
“We have received fresh evidence about [Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh’s charges] . . . Fresh investigations have started based on this evidence,” judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told reporters at a weekly press conference.
In Washington, the State Department and Esfandiari’s husband called the new allegations totally unwarranted.
“It is obvious that the Ministry of Intelligence, lacking any real cause or evidence to keep my wife, Haleh, incarcerated in solitary confinement at Evin, is trying to drag things out by claiming continuing ‘investigations,’ ” said George Mason University professor Shaul Bakhash.
“After hundreds of hours of interrogation and so-called investigation, what is left to investigate. The aim of the security authorities is clearly to coerce a false confession; or, out of sheer meanness, they intend to keep Haleh in Evin Prison as long as they can. It is astonishing that Iran’s political leaders allow this charade to continue,” Bakhash said.
The State Department called for the Americans to be immediately released. “There is absolutely no basis for any prosecution of these people. They pose no threat to the Iranian regime,” said spokesman Tom Casey. “These people should not be subject to any arrest, prosecution, or detention and should be released immediately.”
The two were detained between May 8 and 11 as part of a sweep against people suspected of promoting democracy in Iran. Esfandiari was under virtual house arrest for an additional four months preceding her detention, after her passport was confiscated as she tried to return to the United States.
There are at least two other Americans detained by Iran. California businessman Ali Shakeri was picked up on May 8. Like Esfandiari, he had been in Iran tending to an ailing mother. His mother died and he was at the Tehran airport when he was picked up. U.S.-funded Radio Farda correspondent Parnaz Azima has been unable to leave Iran since last November. She too has been charged with crimes against national security, but she is out on bail.