US-Iranian scholar Haleh Esfandiari is being detained in Tehran’s Evin prison accused of “acting against national security,” Iran’s judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday.
“She is currently in detention in Evin and being held by intelligence. She is accused of acting against national security. The latest information I have from the judge handling the case is that the investigation into the case is ongoing,” Alireza Jamshidi told reporters.
Relatives of Esfandiari, a dual national who has lived in the United States for more than 25 years, said she had been prevented from leaving Iran since December when she returned to visit her ailing mother.
She was jailed in Evin prison on May 8, according to the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars where she works as director of the Middle East programme.
An Iranian hardline paper on Saturday accused Esfandiari of being an “Israeli intelligence service agent” and seeking to bring about a “Velvet Revolution” in Iran.
Her arrest comes after the authorities confiscated the passport of fellow dual US-Iranian national, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Parnaz Azima.
The Washington Post, citing relatives and colleagues of the women, described them as “soft hostages” apparently caught up in an Iranian reaction to a 75 million dollar initiative launched last year by President George W. Bush to promote democracy in Iran.
The US State Department has said an ex-FBI agent, Robert Levinson, went missing earlier this year on the southern Iranian resort island of Kish but Tehran insists it has not detained the man.
