Iran sentences Princeton history grad student to 10 years for spying
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An Iranian court has sentenced a Beijing-born American scholar to 10 years’ jail on spying charges.
A spokesman for Iran’s judiciary who announced the case on Sunday did not name the person or give any details about when the sentence was passed, but said the person was a citizen of the United States and an unnamed country other than Iran.
“This person, who was gathering information and was directly guided by America, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence can be appealed,” spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on state media.
But Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s official news site, later identified the American as Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old Beijing-born historian at Princeton University whom it said was “spying under the cover of research”.
The US State Department did not identify its jailed citizen, but accused Iran of fabricating national security-related charges to detain Americans and foreigners.
“We call for the immediate release of all US citizens unjustly detained in Iran so they can return to their families,” a State Department official said. “All US citizens, especially dual nationals, considering travel to Iran should carefully read our latest travel warning.”
Wang was arrested on August 8, 2016 while trying to leave the country, Mizan reported.