Tehran to Air 'Confessions' of US Scholars

Prisoner pair caged for months
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 17, 2007 5:08 AM CDT
Tehran to Air 'Confessions' of US Scholars
(AP Photo/IRIB via AP Television)   (Associated Press)

Two Iranian-American scholars arrested for espionage in Iran appear to have made videotaped confessions after months of interrogation, the Los Angeles Times reports. Iran's state-run television is airing excerpts of the statements  to promote the confessions to be broadcast tomorrow. On tape, Haleh Esfandiari 67, of  the Woodrow Wilson Center, appears pale and wears a black chador.

Esfandiari, who has been in solitary confinement since May, says that she has been trying to overthrow the Iranian government "in the name of democracy." Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with George Soros' Open Society Institute, admits to trying to create "conflict" as he reads from a piece of paper. A friend said she was shocked by his aged appearance. (More Tehran stories.)

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