Iran on Tuesday sentenced an Iranian-American academic to 12 years in prison for an alleged role in anti-government protests following the country’s disputed presidential election, despite appeals for his release by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and pop star Sting.
The sentence against Kian Tajbakhsh was the longest yet in a mass trial against more than 100 opposition figures, activists and journalists over Iran’s postelection turmoil.
At the same time, Iran allowed another defendant to leave the country — Canadian-Iranian Maziar Bahari, a journalist for Newsweek arrested in the same crackdown who had been released on bail over the weekend.
Bahari joined his British wife, who is in the last days of her pregnancy, in London, Newsweek said on its Web site on Tuesday, the first word that Bahari had left Iran.
The circumstances of his return to London were not immediately known, but it is unlikely he could have left without the consent of Iranian authorities — perhaps with the implicit expectation that he would not return. Newsweek refused further comment, and Iranian officials could not be reached for explanation.
Bahari’s release could be a concession by Iran to international pressure. But the heavy sentence against Tajbakhsh signaled that Tehran was sticking to a tough line.
It came amid calls in Iran for the prosecution of the most senior opposition figure and suggestions that three US hikers, detained after accidentally crossing into Iran, could face charges.
Tajbakhsh, a social scientist and an urban planner, was arrested by security forces from his Tehran home on July 9 — the only American detained in the fierce crackdown that crushed giant street protests by hundreds of thousands of Iranians against the June 12 presidential elections. The opposition claims the vote was rigged in favor of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The security sweep went far beyond protesters on the streets, snatching up rights activists and journalists, as well as pro-reform politicians.
The government accused them of organizing the wave of protests on behalf of Iran’s foreign enemies to foment a “velvet revolution” to overthrow the country’s Islamic clerical leadership.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Tuesday that Tajbakhsh should be released immediately, saying he poses no threat to the Iranian government or its national security.
Washington has repeatedly denounced Tajbakhsh’s arrest. Secretary of State Clinton appealed in August for his release, and he was specially named in a call by the British rock star Sting to free all political prisoners in Iran.
“Family and friends of Iranian-American detainee Kian Tajbakhsh are shocked and outraged by the news,” said Pam Kilpadi, a friend of Tajbakhsh who is working on a book with him.
She described the charges as “baffling.”
“As an independent scholar, Kian is neither a member of the Iranian reformist movement nor in contact with any foreign headquarters inside or outside Iran, and has had no involvement in pre or postelection unrest,” said Kilpadi, a doctoral researcher at Britain’s University of Bristol who is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tajbakhsh’s lawyer, Houshang Azhari, told the official IRNA news agency that he would appeal the conviction, which was on charges of “acting against national security.”
He said the law prohibited him from divulging the full details of the sentence, and would only say it was “more than 12 years.”
The appeal could open an avenue for freeing Tajbakhsh.
The White House expressed “deepest regret and strong objection” on Tuesday over the sentencing of Tajbakhsh.
“We express our deepest regret and strong objection that the Islamic Republic of Iran has sentenced Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh to 15 years in prison,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
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