IRAN:Iranian television has aired images of two imprisoned American-Iranian academics for the first time and says it will show a documentary today that includes confessions by scholar Haleh Esfandiari of Potomac, Maryland, and New York-based social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh.
The brief video clips included apparent excerpts from the larger effort, titled In the Name of Democracy, in which both make statements about their activities. The Tehran government claims their efforts are designed to undermine its national security and foment non-violent revolution.
Ms Esfandiari (67), the director of Middle East programmes at the Smithsonian's Woodrow Wilson International Centre of Scholars, is quoted as saying her work was "in the name of dialogue, in the name of women's rights, in the name of democracy". The grandmother was pictured in a setting outside Evin Prison's ward 209, where she has been held in solitary confinement since she was detained on May 8th.
The trailer alleged that she was specifically an agent for the 2003 "velvet revolution" in Georgia, which led to the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze.
Mr Tajbakhsh, a consultant for George Soros's Open Society Institute, who was arrested on May 11th, was quoted as saying: "[ The role] of the Soros centre after the collapse of communism was to focus on the Islamic world." He was pictured holding notes.
Ms Esfandiari and Mr Tajbakhsh are US and Iranian citizens. Their statements sparked angry reactions in the US. -