Middle East News

US-Iranian scholar should be allowed to go home, says Ahmadinejad

Aug 28, 2007, 14:43 GMT

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iranian-US scholar Haleh Esfandiari should be allowed to go home. 'As far as I am concerned, she should have been allowed to contact her family and now (after release on bail) be allowed to go home,' Ahmadinejad said in a press conference in Tehran. The president however reminded that the Esfandiari case was in the hands of the judiciary and not the government. The Iranian judiciary last Tuesday released Esfandiari on bail of 300,000 dollars and allowed her to leave Evin prison in northern Tehran where she was being held. She has however not yet any permission to leave the country and return home. Esfandiari, who works for the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars has been jailed in Iran since May on alleged espionage charges. She arrived in Iran in December to visit her mother and was detained repeatedly and prevented from leaving the country since January. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Middle East News

US-Iranian scholar should be allowed to go home, says Ahmadinejad

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