Iran frees US-Iranian scholar on bail
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has released on bail a US-Iranian jailed since May in a case that stoked tensions with Washington, but the scholar is still unable to leave the country, the judiciary said Thursday.
Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning expert, was released from Tehran's Evin prison late Wednesday after paying one billion rials (107,000 dollars) in bail, a sum that had taken him more than a week to produce.
His release followed the liberation last month of renowned US-Iranian scholar Haleh Esfandiari and the departure from Iran of US-Iranian journalist Parnaz Azima after being stuck in the country for months without a passport.
"He (Tajbakhsh) was released last night after depositing the bail," an official from the office of judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told AFP.
Tajbakhsh, who was held in solitary confinement on accusations of harming national security, had been detained over his work for US billionaire George Soros's Open Society Institute.
Iranian officials have accused the Soros institute of working in cahoots with an alleged US government drive to topple Iran's Islamic authorities, accusations vehemently denied by the body.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the delay between the setting of bail and Tajbakhsh's release was because it had taken some time for his relatives to come up with the sum.
"The only problem he had was paying the bail. This was not from our side, it was a problem from their side."
The official said Tajbakhsh was still in Iran and would need to make a "written request" to the judge if a ban on him leaving the country was to be lifted.
Tajbakhsh's wife told reporters outside his home in Tehran that he would not be appearing before the press for the moment. "He needs to rest for the next days," she said.
Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI) said it was delighted by the news of his release.
"OSI is delighted that this distinguished scholar is safe at home in Tehran with his wife and that his harrowing ordeal finally seems to have come to an end," OSI spokeswoman Laura Silber told the Washington Post.
Tajbakhsh talked with journalists last week in a surprise encounter at Evin prison, where he confirmed he was being held in solitary confinement but said his conditions were "fine" and he could meet his wife every week.
Both Tajbakhsh and Esfandiari in July had given "interviews" to state television apparently implicating themselves in the alleged US efforts to topple Iran's clerical authorities.
That programme -- entitled "In the Name of Democracy" -- was denounced by the United States and his comments then were interpreted by many media in Iran as a confession. But Tajbakhsh vehemently denied this was the case.
Tajbakhsh, who was based in Iran at the time of his arrest, was taken from his home in Tehran on May 11, shortly after Esfandiari was detained.
Esfandiari has now left Iran and returned to her job at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington following her release on a three-billion-rial (320,000 dollars) bail after three months detention in Evin.
The holding of a total of four US-Iranians has fuelled tensions between Tehran and Washington at a time of growing concerns about the Iranian nuclear programme, which the United States claims is aimed at making an atomic weapon.
Azima, who worked for the Farsi arm of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, earlier this week left Iran for the United States but still faces charges of working for a "counter-revolutionary" station.
There is still no news about the fourth person. Ali Shakeri is a California-based businessman and board member of a private conflict resolution group who is also believed to have been detained since May but on different charges.
Mystery also still surrounds the fate of ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson, who Washington says went missing in March while on a private visit to Iran's Kish island. Tehran says it has no record of him entering the country.
