Trump administration calls for release of American student and other prisoners from Iran
The Trump administration on Tuesday called for the release of Princeton University researcher and U.S. citizen Ziyu Wang from Iran, State Department spokeswoman Heather North said in a statement.
Ms. North announced on Tuesday, July 17th: The Iranian regime continues to detain American citizens and other foreign nationals on trumped-up national security charges.
A US State Department spokesperson said: "We call on Iran to release American citizens, including Baqer and Siamak Namazi, Ziyu Wang, and other unjustly detained prisoners, so that they can join their families."
According to Ms. North, reports have raised concerns in the United States about the physical well-being of Namazi and Wang, and Iran should immediately release all of these American prisoners on a humanitarian basis.
On Sunday, Iranian judicial authorities announced that an American researcher had been sentenced to ten years in prison on espionage charges.
Princeton University confirmed that its researcher, Ziyu Wang, who was born in China and is a US citizen, was studying for a PhD in history.
Mr. Wang is a four-year doctoral student in the Department of History at Princeton University.
According to a statement from Princeton University, he researches late 19th and early 20th century European history.
The statement added: “The American student was arrested late last summer while researching the administrative and cultural history of the Qajar dynasty for his doctoral thesis. Since his arrest, Princeton University has been working with his family and the US government to secure his early release.”
Princeton University has denied the allegations against Mr. Wang, saying they are contrary to his academic affiliations and activities. Princeton and the student's family hope that he will be released from prison after the appeal hearing.
In a first statement released by Princeton University on Tuesday, Mr. Wang's wife described her husband as a kind man and said they had a four-year-old son.
In her statement, Ms. Hua O noted that their son misses his father and has not seen him for more than a year. According to the American student's wife, Mr. Wang did nothing wrong.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, an independent center based in New York, says that at least 12 people of foreign nationality, mainly from Western countries, are imprisoned in Iran, including in addition to the Namazis and Karan Vafadari activists.
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, says that while foreigners are allowed to travel to Iran, we see time and again that they are being detained by extremists in a political game to be used as hostages in a deal with Western countries.
According to Mr. Ghaemi, the Rouhani government is trying to present Iran as a free place for tourists, but the arrest and imprisonment of foreign citizens and the political treatment of them by the judicial system sends a different message.
Source: Voice of America
