Tehran jails Iranian-American for ‘working with hostile government’

Graduate student Robin Shahini given 18-year prison term

DUBAI // An Iranian-American held in Tehran has been jailed for 18 years for “collaboration with a hostile government”. The sentence handed down to Robin Shahini, 46, after a secret trial is the harshest yet for those detained in what analysts believe is Tehran’s plan to use them as bargaining chips in future negotiations over Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

In a media interview broadcast on Monday, Shahini, a graduate student from San Diego, California, said he “just laughed” after hearing his sentence.

He acknowledged supporting the protests that followed Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election, but denied he was a spy.

“Whatever information they had is all the pictures I posted in Facebook, in my web blog, and they use all those evidence to accuse me,” Shahini said.

Iranian judiciary officials did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, nor did the Iranian mission to the United Nations.

The US state department said: “We reaffirm our calls on Iran to respect and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, cease arbitrary and politically motivated detentions and ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings.”

Shahini left Iran in 1998 and had lived in San Diego for 16 years. He graduated in May from San Diego State University with a degree in international security and conflict resolution. The university accepted his application on to a graduate programme in homeland security.

Shahini was detained on July 11 when he travelled to Iran to see his mother who was found to have Alzheimer’s disease.

Iran does not recognise the concept of dual nationality – that means that Iranians with dual citizenship and detained in Iran cannot receive consular assistance.

In most cases, dual nationals have faced secret charges in closed- door hearings before Iran’s revolutionary court, which handles cases involving alleged attempts to overthrow the government.

Analysts and family members of those detained in Iran have suggested that hardliners in the country’s security agencies want to negotiate another deal with the West to free the detainees.

In January, Jason Rezaian, a journalist at The Washington

Post, and three Iranian-Amer- icans were freed at the same time as the United States made a US$400 million (Dh1.4 billion) cash delivery to Iran.

In September, Iran freed retired Canadian-Iranian university professor Homa Hoodfar amid negotiations to reopen embassies in the two nations.

Last week, Iran’s judiciary announced that Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, 80, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Earlier, Iran sentenced Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe, a British- Iranian woman travelling with her young daughter, to five years in prison on allegations of planning the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government.

Still missing is former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorised CIA mission. Shahini said he was unsure whether to appeal against his sentence but was considering another option. “I do a hunger strike until either they free me or I die,” he said.

Analysts believe Tehran plans to use detainees as bargaining chips in future negotiations over Iran’s nuclear deal