WORLD / Middle East
Footage shows detained Iranian-Americans
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-17 08:54
TEHRAN, Iran - Two Iranian-Americans detained here on national security
charges appeared Monday for the first time on state television, with one
saying in one of the brief video clips that his foundation may have
targeted Islam.
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. [AP]
The TV images followed Iran's announcement this month that fresh evidence
had pushed its judiciary to launch new investigations into the cases of
Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh.
State TV said the video clips were a preview for a longer program titled
"Under the Name of Democracy" that will air later this week. Relatives
and employers of Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh denounced the videos, saying
they were coerced and illegitimate.
Along with shots of the Iranian-Americans, the preview also showed
archived images of street violence and protests, apparently from Iran and
Eastern Europe.
Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh appeared separately. They both spoke in Farsi
and appeared to be in homes or offices.
Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the New York-based George
Soros Open Society Institute, and Esfandiari, director of the Middle East
program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, have been held in Tehran's Evin prison since being arrested
separately in May on charges of endangering national security.
Two other Iranian-Americans face similar charges.
Family members, colleagues and employers of the four Iranian-Americans
deny the allegations. The US government has demanded that they be
released.
In one of the video clips, Tajbakhsh, 45, is shown reading from a piece
of paper. "The role of the Soros foundation might have been targeting the
world of Islam," he says.
In another segment, Esfandiari wore what appeared to be the traditional
black cloak called a chador. A man wearing glasses was shown seated
across from her asking questions.
"I was an element in the velvet revolution in Georgia," Esfandiari said.
The TV did not elaborate or explain the context in which she said this.
But the Iranian Intelligence Ministry has accused her of trying to set up
networks of Iranians with the ultimate goal of creating a "soft
revolution" in Iran to topple the hard-line Islamic administration.
At another point in the video, Esfandiari said: "Finding speakers has
been my role," a possible reference to her efforts to bring prominent
Iranians to the US to talk about the political situation in Iran.
The Woodrow Wilson Center said any "confessions" made by Esfandiari -
which Iranian state-run television says it will air later this week -
have no legitimacy.
"Any statements she may make without having had access to her lawyer
would be coerced and have no legitimacy or standing," said former Rep.
Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson Center.
The Open Society Institute also said in a statement it was "disheartened
by the Iranian government's decision to stage television footage of
coerced statements" made by Tajbakhsh and Esfandiari.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he had not seen the
footage, but he renewed calls for the detainees' release.
"These are people who have devoted large chunks of their lives to
building bridges between the Iranian and the American people, so to
prevent these kinds of people from especially leaving Iran really sends a
negative message and is an unfortunate comment about the nature of this
particular regime," McCormack said.
The spokesman also renewed an appeal for information about the
whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who went missing in
Iran in March and has not been heard from since.
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