3 Iranian-Americans Charged With Spying

U.S. academic Haleh Esfandiari and two other Iranian-Americans have been "formally charged" with endangering national security and espionage, Iran's judiciary spokesman said Tuesday.

"Esfandiari has been formally charged with endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners," spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters. "She has been informed of the charges against her."

Jamshidi did not say when the specific allegations had been read to Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. She has been held at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison since early May.

Jamshidi said the same charges also had been lodged against Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant who also has worked for the World Bank, and journalist Parnaz Azima. No trial date has been announced and Jamshidi said the investigation against all three is continuing.

Azima, who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda, was detained but released and barred from leaving the country. It was the first time the government has confirmed the arrest of Tajbakhsh, who was believed to have been taken into custody around May 11, according to George Soros' Open Society Institute.

Laura Silber, a spokeswoman for Soros' Open Society Institute in New York said the organization was "dismayed at the charges" against Tajbakhsh, an "internationally respected scholar."

"The charges are completely without merit," Silber told The Associated Press by telephone. "We are very concerned for Dr. Tajkbakhsh's safety and urge the Iranian authorities to release him immediately."

The Intelligence Ministry has accused Esfandiari and her organization of trying to set up networks of Iranians with the ultimate goal of creating a "soft revolution" in Iran, along the lines of the revolts that ended Communist rule in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Ministry has alleged that the Open Society Institute, which seeks to promote democracy, was part of the conspiracy.