The Woodrow Wilson Center issued a statement today saying that any “confessions” by Haleh Esfandiari which Iranian state-run television says it will air on Wednesday and Thursday have no legitimacy.

“Haleh is in her 71st day of solitary confinement in Evin Prison. She has seen no one from outside the prison during this time: not her mother, not her family, not her lawyer, and not the ICRC or any independent international body. Any statements she may make without having had access to her lawyer would be coerced and have no legitimacy or standing,” said Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “This reprehensible pattern of activity by interrogators in Iran has occurred before: jailing innocent people, confining them, and then producing a framed or cobbled statement or confession. This is not a fair judicial process at work.”

“The reported charges against Haleh are ludicrous,” said Hamilton.

To download the full statement, please click here