Detained Iranian-American consultant expects to be released soon

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An Iranian-American consultant detained for months in Teheran's Evin prison told reporters during a visit to the prison Tuesday that he expects to be released soon and that Iranian authorities have raised no formal charges against him. "I expect to be released soon, conditions inside the prison are fine," said Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute. Although authorities said they have charged Tajbakhsh with endangering national security - as they have the recently released American-Iranian scholar Haleh Esfandiari - Tajbakhsh claimed his case was still under investigation. However, Ali Reza Jamshidi, Iranian Judiciary spokesman who accompanied the media visit, told reporters that charges indeed have been raised against Tajbakhsh but that the Iranian-American would likely be "released soon, probably within the next few days."