12-year jail term for Iranian-US scholar (Roundup)

Middle East News

Oct 20, 2009, 13:40 GMT

Tehran - A court in Tehran has sentenced Iranian-US scholar Kian Tajbakhsh to a 12-year jail term for political offenses, the official news agency IRNA reported Tuesday. IRNA quoted Tajbakhsh's lawyer as confirming that his client was convicted and sentenced to the 12-year jail term for his involvement in political unrest following the June 12 presidential election which led to re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Tajbakhsh was arrested last July during a protest demonstration against alleged election fraud in Tehran and later charged by the revolutionary court with joining opposition groups trying to topple the Islamic system through a so-called soft revolution. More than 4,000 people were arrested after protest demonstrations against Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election and more than 100 of them are still jailed and charged, as Tajbakhsh, with having planned plots against the Islamic establishment. It is not the first time for Tajbakhsh, a sociologist and former urban planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society Institute, to be jailed in Iran. In 2007 he was arrested on charges of cooperating with US think thanks to topple the Islamic system. He was released after four months on a bail amounting over 100,000 dollars and reportedly returned to the US. Three of the post-vote detainees have been sentenced to death, although they have a right to appeal.

Middle East

12-year jail term for Iranian-US scholar (Roundup)

Middle East News

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