U.S. prisoner in Iran to be released soon

Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with the Open Society Institute (OSI) in New York, expects to be released soon, Guardian Unlimited reports today. He is one of four American-Iranians suspected of security offenses, and has been in prison since May under charges of endangering national security.

The Iranian government broadcast a video in July where Tajbakhsh and fellow prisoner Haleh Esfandiari, who was released last month, supposedly confessed. Tajbakhsh said in the video that his organization was attempting to create a “gap between the government and the nation.” The OSI has responded by criticizing the Iranian government for coercing the confessions.

Although the case is still under investigation, Ali Reza Jamshidi, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary has stated that Tajbakhsh will be “released soon, probably within the next few days.”

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