Barack Obama voiced his concern for the wrongful imprisonment of Haleh Esfandiari in a letter that he sent to Mostafa Rahmani, the Director of the Iranian Interest Section in Washington DC, on July 30.

I write today to repeat my call that Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, a distinguished scholar and the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, be immediately and unconditionally released and permitted to return to the United States. She has been unjustly imprisoned in Iran since May 8, 2007.

It has now been more than six months since Dr. Esfandiari was forbidden to return to the United States, and more than two months since she was detained in solitary confinement and denied legal counsel.

Obama’s Letter

In his national security address at the Woodrow Wilson center, Senator Obama voiced his concern over the unjust imprisonment of Haleh Esfandiari:

Let me also say that my thoughts and prayers are with your colleague, Haleh Esfandiari, and her family. I have made my position known to the Iranian government. It is time for Haleh to be released. It is time for Haleh to come home.

For the full speech, click here.

France 24 released a story that reported on the ongoing imprisonment of Haleh Esfandiari.

The case of the US-Iranians detained in Iran on suspicion of harming national security is still in the hands of the investigating judge, two-and-a-half months after their arrest, the judiciary said

“What will happen to these people is up to the judge,” judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters, responding to a question over whether the trio could be released or sent to court for trial.

Haleh has now been imprisoned for 84 days. For the full story, click here

The Iranian government has arrested more citizens who allegedly are connected with Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh. The names of the citizens have yet to be made public, and the reason for their arrest also remains a mystery.

For the full story, click here

The Defenders of Human Rights Center, Shirin Ebadi’s Iranian-based civil rights group, released a statement that condemns the video broadcast by Iranian state television.

“The unprecedented airing of statements by Haleh Esfandiari … and Kian Tajbakhsh are against law and violate the rights of the accused,” the Defenders of Human Rights Centre said in a statement.

Citing articles in Iran’s penal code, Ebadi’s group said: “It is forbidden and an offence to reveal the statements of the accused or the content of the case through the mass media before a final verdict.”

Summarized from Agence France Presse 07/24/07

The program broadcast nationwide yesterday — announced with much fanfare by the Intelligence Ministry on Monday and expected to be continued today — was supposed to show Iran and ostensibly the world my mother’s complicity in a plan to undermine the Islamic Republic using, of all things, female activists and academics. But the footage turned out to be a typical secret police job of deception, vicious in intent yet clumsily contrived.

What Iran’s security authorities, in their infinite wisdom, are presenting to the world and to their domestic audience is a doctored “interview” in which dishonest cutting and splicing unconvincingly attempt to make the most ordinary statement appear to be part of a great “conspiracy,” a harbinger of massive subversion.

To read the full text, click here.

It is astonishing that Iranian authorities should subject a woman who has been devoted to Iran all her life to unfair treatment, incarceration and unfounded charges.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative calls on the Iranian government to adhere to its own high principles of justice and fairness. It is time end Dr. Esfandiari’s imprisonment, to restore her freedom, and to allow her to return home.

To read full text, click here.

The AP caption: “Haleh Esfandiari a detained Iranian-American speaking in this image taken from TV during a TV interview at an unknown location in Iran that was aired in Iran on Monday July 16, 2007. Iranian state-run television on Monday showed footage for the first time of two of the four Iranian-Americans detained in the country, promising more images in the coming days. The video showed Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh separately, located in what appeared to be residential homes, wearing civilian attire.”

The last sentence raises the question of when and where this footage was taken. No family, lawyer, or journalist has had access to Haleh in over 70 days.

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

“We are deeply disturbed by these new reports from Iran, and by the fact that Haleh remains in Evin prison despite not one shred of truth to any of the charges brought against her,” said Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Wilson Center. “We are gravely concerned about Haleh’s physical and mental state. We have been unable to get anyone in to see Haleh, and to report to us on the state of her health and well-being. The reports we have received are that Haleh has lost weight and that she is not getting the medical attention or the medicines she needs. I ask the Iranian government to end this nightmare for Haleh and the other imprisoned Iranian-Americans. As I have said countless times before, Haleh is a scholar. She is not a spy. Let Haleh go.”

To download the full text, please click here