By: JP Schnapper-Casteras
Update as of 8/24: Legal Questions Remain for Freed Scholar in Iran (NYT). New York Times Oped by Camelia Entekhabifard, Fooled by Winds of Reform.
Haleh Esfandiari, one of three Americans imprisoned in Iran, has been released on bail, although charges are still pending and and there are new concerns about her health and if she will be allowed to leave the country.
Her lawyer, Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi, told Reuters “I’m happy that the judiciary and the Islamic revolutionary court finally accepted the law and released my client on bail.” Ebadi remarked to AP, “[t]he next stage is that a date will be set for the trial. I … will defend her in court. I’m certain that my client is innocent and she must be acquitted of the charges.”
Former U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton suggested his letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have been a factor in Esfandiari’s release (see also Woodrow Wilson, RS post).
WaPo reports that a second U.S.-Iranian academic (Kian Tajbakhsh) may soon be released on bail.
In other news, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
- will “visit Baghdad soon in what will be the first-ever visit of an Iranian president to Iraq” (AP/JPost, Middle East Progress).
- “replaced Iran’s key oil and industry ministers, a major Cabinet reshuffle widely seen Monday as increasing his control over industries that are the source of most of the country’s revenues.” The fired oil minister warned of an impending energy “catastrophe.”
- emphasized solidarity with Azerbaijan, in a visit there Monday.
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