Tehran - The Iranian judiciary on Tuesday confirmed that
Iranian-US scholar Kian Tajbakhsh will 'within the next few days' be
released on bail from the Evin prison in Tehran.
Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi told reporters in the Evin
prison that the decision has already been taken and the release will
take place 'within the next few days.'
Local and foreign reporters were allowed Tuesday to visit
Tajbakhsh in the Evin prison.
Tajbakhsh, a sociologist and urban planning consultant with George
Soros' Open Society Institute, has been jailed for more than four
months for having links to US think-tanks which Tehran accuses of
trying to topple the Islamic system.
Tajbakhsh told the visiting reporters that conditions in the
prison were satisfactory and that he had access to television and
books in his solitary cell. He added that he also had daily phone
contacts and weekly visits with his pregnant wife.
'I am held in a suite but just have no pool,' ISNA news agency
quoted him as saying.
Referring to reports that he would also be released on bail like
the two other Iranian-US national Haleh Esfandiari and and Parinaz
Azimi, Tajbakhsh expressed hope for an early release but could give
no date.
Esfandiari, who works for the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson
International Centre for Scholars and has been jailed since May on
alleged espionage charges, and Azimi, a correspondent for a Persian-
language radio station owned by US-funded Radio Free Europe, were
both allowed by Iran's judiciary to return home after their release
earlier this month.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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