POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN
Xiyue Wang with his son and wife
A group of 120 academics and human rights activists of Iranian origin have called on Iran to free imprisoned Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang, who was arrested in Tehran by agents of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in 2016 while he was conducting archival research and sentenced to ten years in prison on unsubstantiated espionage charges a year later. The signatories, including prominent Iranian scholars and the Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, made the call in a letter addressed to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which recently found that there is “no legal basis” for Wang’s arrest and detention and called for his immediate release. In July 2017, the AAUP joined with 32 other higher education organizations in a statement calling for Wang’s safe release and return home. “Scholars around the world engage every day in archival research in pursuit of historical knowledge. Mr. Wang’s imprisonment can only have a chilling effect on historical research and scholarly exchange in Iran and throughout the world, and this, in turn, can only lead to diminished understanding and greater mistrust, to the detriment of all,” the statement said.
The following is the text of the letter, as posted by the Center for Human Rights in Iran:
September 27, 2018
Dear members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention,
We the undersigned, a group of Iranian academics and human rights activists residing outside the country, wish to thank the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for investigating the imprisonment of Mr. Xiyue Wang in Iran and concluding that there is “no legal basis for his arrest and detention.” The New York Times covers the story with more details.
We join the U. N. Working Group to demand the immediate release of Mr. Wang. The truth is that Mr. Wang is a hostage and the purpose of Iran’s theocrats is either to swap him for their convicted agents detained in the United States or collect money for his release. This is exactly what the Iranian government did when it arrested three American hikers – Joshua Fattal, Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer – in the border area of Iran and Iraq in 2009.
Sarah Shourd was released 14 months later on “humanitarian grounds.” Fattal and Bauer were convicted to eight years imprisonment for “illegal entry” and “espionage.” Two years after their arrest each was released for payment of $465,000 arranged by the Sultan of Oman.
The same kind of swap took place in 2016 when four dual citizen hostages, including the Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaaian, were released in exchange for cash.
The Iranian judiciary is a tool of the theocratic state. It rejects the very idea of due process and recognizes no limit in mistreating its victims. As Ms. Hua Du, Mr. Wang’s wife, writes in the Princeton University website, “my husband has undergone many cruelties, from being kidnapped to enduring solitary confinement, repeated interrogations, humiliating treatment, harsh living conditions, unjust legal proceedings, and immense emotional distress.”
This is the way the Islamic Republic treats dissident scholars, human rights lawyers, intellectuals and promoters of civil society. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, Defenders of Human Rights Center, and Center for Human Rights in Iran have documented the catastrophic violations of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past four decades. Ms. Nargess Mohammadi, an internationally recognized human rights activist, has been sentenced to sixteen years incarceration for her opposition to death penalty and promotion of women’s rights. She is suffering from ailment in prison, but the authorities deny her even a temporary release for medical care. Abdolfattah Sultani, Nasrin Sotoudeh and other lawyers are serving time in prison for simply defending their clients whose sin is advocacy of resistance to such oppressive policies as mandatory veiling. Even a friend and spouse of these lawyers, Dr. Farhad Meisami and Reza Khandan, are detained in order to put pressure on the families and supporters of human rights activists.
We urge the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to investigate the plight of Iranian political prisoners and urge the international community to condemn the egregious violations of human rights in Iran and demand immediate release of all political prisoners.
Full name and affiliation:
Aalam, Kourosh. Democracy Advocate
Afary, Frieda. Producer of Iranian Progressives in Translation
Afary, Janet, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Afkhami, Mahnaz, Women’s Learning Partnership
Afshar, Mahasti, Ph.D., Independent Scholar
Afshari, Ali, Ph.D., George Washington University
Afshari, M. Reza, Ph.D., Pace University
Afshin Jam, A. Human Rights Advocate, Canada
Alamdari, Kazem, Ph.D. California State University, Northridge
Alavi, Hossein. Journalist
Alavi, Kianoush. Composer and song writer
Alinejad, Masih. Journalist and Women’s rights Activist
Amanat, Abbas, Ph.D., Yale University
Amanat, Mehrdad, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Amani, Elahe. Women’s Rights Activist
Amini, Fariba. Journalist
Ardavan, Ershad.
Aryanpour, Houshang, Ph.D., Writer
Atabaki, Touraj, Ph.D., International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam
Azar, Shokoofeh. Writer
Bagheri, Hossein. Human rights activist
Baghi, Heibatollah, Ph.D., George Mason University
Bakhash, Shaul, Ph.D. George Mason University
Banuazizi, Ali, Ph.D., Boston University
Barati, Mehran, MD, Future Trends Analyses
Basiri, Nasim. Women’s Rights Activist and Poet
Bayat, Behrouz, Ph.D.
Boroujerdi, Mehrzad, Ph.D., Syracuse University
Chehabi, Houchang E., Ph.D., Boston University
Darabi Nasser. Democracy advocate
Davachi, Azadeh. Women’s rights activist
Darvishpour, Mehrdad, Ph.D., Stockholm University
Ebadi, Shirin, Nobel Laureate for Peace
Eghtedari, Mohammad, Ph.D., Retired Academician
Esfandiari, Haleh, Ph.D., Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars
Etemadi, Nader. Human rights activist
Fallah, Soraya, California State University, Northridge
Farhang, Mansour, Ph.D., Bennington College, Vermont
Farhang, Yasmine. Immigration Lawyer and democracy advocate
Farid Ashkan. Human Right Activist
Farshim, Fariborz, Democracy advocate
Ghaemi, Hadi, Ph.D., Human Rights Center in Iran
Goharzad, Reza. Journalist
Ghorashi, Reza, Ph.D., Stockton University of New Jeresy
Hashemi, Nader, Ph.D., University of Denver
Haji-Hosseini, Reza, Journalist
Hatef, Elham, MD, Johns Hopkins University
Hoodfar, Homa, Ph.D., Concordia University, Montreal
Houdashtian, Ata, Ph.D., University of Geneva, Switzerland
Hosseini, Parvaneh. Worcester State University
Husseini, Nahid, Ph.D., Kingston University, London
Jafari, Farkhondeh, Women’s rights activist
Jaafari, Mahmood, Democracy advocate
Kar, Mehrangiz. Writer and Human Rights Activist
Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad, Ph.D., University of Maryland
Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan, Ph.D., University of Toronto
Kamali, Mehrak, Ph.D., Ohio State University
Kardevani, Kazem, Ph.D., Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, France.
Karimi, Ali, Writer
Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad. Ph.D., University of Maryland
Khorrami, Mehdi, Ph.D., NASA’s Langley Research Center
Khoshchehreh, Ashraf. Transparent California
Khun-Jush, Jamshid. Human rights activist
Kowsari, Hamid. Writer and human rights activist
Lackner-Gohari, Jaleh, MD, Austria
Loghmani, Mehrdad. Writer and human rights advocate
Mahdavi, Pardis, Ph.D., University of Denver
Mahdi, Ali-Akbar, Ph.D., California State University, Northridge
Maleki Mohammad, Ph.D., Former President of Tehran University, Iran
Maleki, Ammar, Ph.D., Tilburg University
Milani, Abbas, Ph.D., Stanford University
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, Ph.D., SOAS, University of London
Mirsepassi, Ali, Ph.D., New York University
Moaddel, Mansoor, Ph.D., University of Maryland
Moghadam, Rezvan, Women’s rights activist
Moghissi, Haideh, Ph.D., York University, Canada
Momtaz, Amir Houshmand, Council of National Front of Iran
Monshipouri, Mahmood, Ph.D., San Francisco State University
Moshfeghi, Marmar, Women’s rights activist
Moshkani, Jamshid, Poet, translator
Naficy, Majid. Ph.D., Poet, writer, human rights activist
Navab, Mohamad, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Navaian, Davoud, Retired teacher, Sweden
Nayeb-Hashen, Hassan, MD, Human Rights Activist
Nooriala, Partow, Poet, writer, Human Rights activist
Nowakhtar, Shahrir, CPA, Human rights activist
Paivandi, Saeed, Ph.D., University of Lorraine (Nancy – France)
Parhami, Behrooz, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Parsa, Koroush, Independent Scholar
Parsa, Misagh, Ph.D., Dartmouth College
Peykar, Shahin. Human rights activist
Pirzadeh, Bijan, Human Rights Activist
Pourzand, Azadeh. Siyamak Pourzand Foundation
Rahimieh, Nasrin, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
Rahmanian, Kamal, Human Rights Activist
Rashidi, Saeed, Sharif University of Technology
Roshandel, Jalil, Ph.D., East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina
Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, Eskandar, Ph.D., University of Oxford
Sadr, Elahe, Women’s Rights Activist
Sadrzadeh, Ali, Journalist
Sanati, Mahdokht, Advocates of Children’s Rights
Setoudeh, Behrouz, Civil Rights Activist
Shafii, Rouhi, writer/translator and women’s rights activist
Shambayati, Karim, Human Rights Activist, Germany
Shariatmadari, Hassan, Haman Rights Activist
Shojaee, Mansoureh, Women’s rights activist
Soopikian, Carmen, Striving for Human Rights in Iran
Stratton, Katherine, Human Rights Advocate
Tabari, Esfandiar, Ph.D., Philosopher and Writer
Tabe-Mohammadi, Shahram, Ph.D., Ontario Ministry of Environment
Taheri, Fara, Women’s Rights activist
Talattof, Kamran, Ph.D., University of Arizona
Tohidi, Nayereh, Ph.D., California State University, Northridge
Vahdat, Farzin, Ph.D., Independent Scholar
Waladan, Jawad, Translator
Zamani, Lili, International Association of Women
Zamini, Sholeh, Women rights defender
Zandian, Mandana, MD, Poet, writer, Human Rights Activist
Zanganeh, Hamid, Ph.D., Widener University, Pennsylvania
Ziazie, Arsalan. Human Rights Advocate
