TEHRAN (Reuters) - An American-Iranian academic, detained in Iran on spying charges, has been held in solitary confinement for 40 days, Nobel Peace prize winner and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi said on Tuesday.
Ebadi also called for Haleh Esfandiari, who was detained in May, to be released on bail in a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, details of which were faxed in a statement to Reuters.
Esfandiari is one of three American-Iranians held on security charges, while a fourth is free on bail. The detentions have heightened tensions between two foes already at loggerheads over violence in Iraq and Tehran’s nuclear program.
Tehran says Washington is using intellectuals and others to carry out a “soft revolution” to undermine the Islamic state. A charge of spying could carry the death sentence.
Washington denies those held are spies and demanded their release. Iran, which does not recognize dual nationalities, says the issue is a judicial matter and none of Washington’s concern.
“As you know my client (Esfandiari) has been in solitary confinement for nearly 40 days. Receiving visitors is forbidden to her,” Ebadi said in the letter to the judiciary chief.
Lawyer Abdol-Fattah Soltani, also working on the case, told Reuters that according to his information Esfandiari was only allowed to contact her mother for a very brief phone call every five days or so from Tehran’s Evin prison where she is held.
Ebadi also complained in her letter that Parnaz Azima, a journalist who was detained but released on bail, had been banned from leaving Iran despite posting bail.
Some analysts link the arrests to the detention in Iraq by U.S. forces of five Iranians, who Washington says were aiding militants. Iran denies any link or any role in stoking violence and says the five men are diplomats and should be released.
