US-Iranian academic Haleh Esfandiari said Monday she was “elated” to be heading home after her release from a lengthy stint in solitary confinement in a Tehran jail on security charges.
Esfandiari, 67, was released on August 21 on bail of three billion rials (320,000 dollars) from Tehran’s Evin prison, where she had been held since early May on accusations of links to a US drive to topple Iran’s rulers.
She flew late Sunday to the Austrian capital Vienna, where she was met by her husband Shaul Bakhash, after authorities in Tehran had returned the academic’s Iranian passport.
“After a long and difficult ordeal, I am elated to be on my way back to my home and my family,” Esfandiari said in a statement released by her employers at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
The academic, who heads the Wilson Center’s Middle East program, said she had spent 105 days in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin jail, but did not detail her conditions in detention.
Esfandiari said she was “immensely grateful” for the backing given to her by Woodrow Wilson staff, the Austrian embassy in Tehran, supporters around the world and her Iranian lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
Stressing she wanted to look to the future instead of dwelling on the past, she added: “I am sure everyone will understand my need, now, for a period of quiet and privacy before I resume my normal activities.”
Bakhash, an Iranian-American professor of history at George Mason University near Washington, added his own elation at his wife’s departure from Iran following her “unjustified detention.”
Esfandiari had returned to Iran last year to visit her sick 93-year-old mother. According to the Wilson Center, she was attacked on her way to the airport in December by masked men who took away her bags and passports.
She was not detained at the time but was frequently interrogated before she was jailed on May 8.
Two other US-Iranians, urban planner Kian Tajbakhsh and California-based businessman Ali Shakeri, have also been detained in Iran since May.
Tajbakhsh faces the same accusations as Esfandiari and judicial sources said after her release that he could be bailed in the near future. However, there has since been no further news on his case.
Another US-Iranian, Parnaz Azima, who works for Radio Free Europe’s Persian-language arm Radio Farda, faces security-related charges and is banned from leaving Iran.
The arrests have increased tensions between Tehran and Washington at a time of growing concerns about Iran’s nuclear drive, which the United States claims is aimed at making an atomic weapon.
Tehran’s chief prosecutor for security crimes, Hassan Hadad, said there was no reason to prevent Esfandiari leaving the country but appeared to imply the case was still not over.
“Any accused person who is free on bail can leave the country until the trial and there is no reason to ban them from leaving the country,” the ISNA agency quoted him as saying.
Lee Hamilton, president of the Wilson Center, also expressed delight at the news and said: “I know that I echo the sentiments of many when I say that it will be marvelous to have her home.
“It is hard to imagine the feelings of frustration, pain, loneliness and sorrow Haleh felt while being imprisoned and unable to communicate with, and kept away from, her family for several months,” he said.
Hamilton added: “I also ask that everyone continue to call for the release and safe return of the other Iranian Americans being held in Tehran.”
