An Iranian-American academic who works at a Washington-based institute is being held in a notorious Iran prison after being prohibited from leaving the Mideast country for more than four months, the institute and her husband said yesterday.
Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, was sent Tuesday to the Evin prison after she arrived at Iran’s Intelligence Ministry for questioning, the center said in statement. Iran has not confirmed that it is detaining Esfandiari, and officials in Tehran could not be reached for comment yesterday. “This is extremely disturbing news,” said Esfandiari’s husband, Shaul Bakhash, in a telephone interview from their home in Maryland. “I never expected they would jail a 67-year-old woman for no reason whatsoever.”
Esfandiari’s arrest comes as Washington and Tehran are locked in a bitter standoff over Iran’s disputed nuclear program and involvement in war-torn Iraq. Though the two countries ceased diplomatic relations following the 1979 seize of the US Embassy in Tehran, tensions between the two escalated sharply over the past year. Her detention comes as other Iranian-Americans have also been prohibited from leaving Iran in recent months including journalist Parnaz Azima, who works for the US-funded Radio Farda. Another American, former FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in March after going to Iran’s Kish resort island and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Tehran says it’s continuing to investigate. Speaking about the two Iranian-American women, the US State Department said it was working “closely” with their families to try to secure their release. “If the regime is willing to harass these innocent people, it’s just an insight into the kind of government we’re dealing with,” said department spokesman Sean McCormack. He refused to discuss specifics of their cases. The Wilson Center said three masked men holding knives threatened to kill Esfandiari, who was in Tehran visiting her 93-year-old mother, on Dec 30 as she was on her way to the airport. They took her baggage including her US and Iranian passports, the center said.
For several weeks, she was interrogated by Iranian authorities for as much as eight hours a day, according to the center. Most of the questioning focused on the activities of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. “Although Dr Esfandiari went home every evening, the some 50 hours of questioning were unpleasant -to put it mildly and not free from intimidation and threat,” the center’s statement said. Lee Hamilton, a former US Congressman and director of the Wilson Center, wrote to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Feb 20 to ask that Esfandiari be allowed to go back to the US But Hamilton -who was co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group that recommend the Bush administration talk to Iran- did not receive a response, the center said.
Esfandiari, who has been living in the US since 1980, was allowed a telephone call to her mother after she arrived in at the prison Tuesday, the center said. Bakhash, who is a professor of Middle East history at George Mason University in Virginia, said he believes there has been a “huge misunderstanding.” “She’s not involved in politics and has done nothing to justify her incarceration in prison,” he said. The Wilson Center is a nonpartisan institution established by the US Congress in 1968, which is funded through private and public funds, according to its Web site. Its Middle East program focuses on several areas including Iran with emphasis on the “analysis of internal domestic and social developments in Iran; the aspiration of the younger generation for reform and expansion of individual liberties,” according to the Website.
In another development, a former senior Iranian nuclear negotiator detained last week for “security reasons” was released on bail of 2 billion rials (about $217,000) yesterday, Iranian news agencies reported. Hossein Mousavian, once a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team with the European Union, is seen as a moderate conservative with ties to the political camp of influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He also headed the foreign policy committee of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. When he was arrested, a news agency said he was detained for “security reasons” but did not give details. The semi-official Fars news agency said the prosecutor’s office signed the release order after bail was posted but that investigations into the case would continue.
“He was released at 1 pm (0930 GMT),” Fars quoted a source as saying. The student news agency ISNA also said he had been released. Officials were not immediately available for comment. Iran’s Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei confirmed on Tuesday that charges against Mousavian were related to “security issues” and said two other people had been summoned in relation to the case. “One of them was released on bail yesterday,” Fars quoted its source as saying, indicating that at least one of them worked at the Supreme National Security Council.
