Jailed Iranian-US scholar temporarily released for new Persian year

Mar 14, 2010, 13:06 GMT

Tehran - Iran has temporarily released Iranian-US scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, his lawyer said Sunday.

Tajbakhsh was released on Saturday for being with his family during the festivities marking the new Persian year starting on March 20, Massoud Shafiei told reporters.

A Tehran court last October sentenced Tajbakhsh to a 12-year jail term for political offenses.

According to his lawyer, Tajbakhsh was convicted on charges of 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 the Open Society Institute of US financier George Soros, 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 had reportedly returned to the US.