TEHRAN, Aug. 12 — A senior judiciary official said Sunday that Iran had finished its investigation into two Iranian-American academics who were arrested in May on espionage charges, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
But the official, Hassan Haddad, who is Tehran’s deputy prosecutor, did not disclose the conclusions of the investigation into the detainees, Haleh Esfandiari, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington, and Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with ties to the Open Society Institute, a pro-democracy policy planning organization financed by George Soros.
“They have to do some written work and then a decision will be made about them,” the news agency quoted him as saying. He did not elaborate.
Ms. Esfandiari and Mr. Tajbakhsh have been in Evin Prison since their arrest three months ago. The state-run television showed a video of the two last month that suggested they had been involved in activities to overthrow the government.
Another Iranian-American scholar, Ali Shakeri, with the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, Irvine, is also being held in Iran. Mr. Haddad said Sunday for the first time that his case was not linked to Ms. Esfandiari and Mr. Tajbakhsh’s case.
“His case has no relations with the situation of those two,” he said. “The time has not come yet to reveal information about his case.”
Mr. Haddad did not mention Parnaz Azima, another Iranian-American who has been barred from leaving the country. She is a journalist and works for Radio Farda, an American-financed station based in Europe.
Mr. Haddad pointed to the case of Mansour Osanloo, the high-profile president of an independent bus workers’ union who has been jailed since last month. He said Mr. Osanloo had been arrested while distributing political statements and his arrest was not related to his union work.
Mr. Osanloo was sentenced to five years in prison, Mr. Haddad said. Mr. Osanloo had been arrested twice before.
Mr. Haddad said that the cases of three students who remain in jail would be sent to court within the next few days. Six other students have been released.
Mr. Haddad rejected Western charges about the notorious Section 209 at Evin Prison, the wing controlled by the Intelligence Ministry. He said the section was “one of the best prisons in the world.” Most prisoners accused of breaking national security laws are kept in the wing.
