Iran jails Princeton graduate for espionage

AN IRANIAN court has sentenced a graduate student from Princeton University to 10 years in jail on spying charges, Iran’s judiciary spokesman said.

In the latest case involving dual citizens held on security charges in the country, Xiyue Wang, 37, a scholar of Eurasian history, was accused of “spying under the cover of research”, said Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s official news site. Wang was born in China but was naturalised as an American citizen.

“This person, who was gathering information and was directly guided by America, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence can be appealed,” spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on state television. The US state department accused Iran of fabricating charges to detain foreigners and demanded the release of all “unjustly detained” US citizens.

Mr Wang was also active at Princeton’s Sharmin and Bijan Mossavarrahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, which Mizan said had links to Western intelligence agencies.