American in Iran Reported Ailing

The sister of an American arrested in Iran for spying appealed Saturday to the Tehran government to free her brother and send him home.

“My brother is not a well man,” Ellen Pattis said of her brother, Jon Pattis, 49, a telecommunications engineer who was detained in Tehran on July 18.

Pattis said her brother suffered from angina, a progressive chronic heart condition, and also from the effects of childhood polio.

“We have asked that a doctor examine Jon as a matter of urgency, and the Iranians have told the Swiss Embassy one of their doctors will see him and report on his health,” Ellen Pattis said.

The interests of U.S. citizens in Iran are looked after by the Swiss Embassy, sinc e the United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran.

Pattis denied that her brother was a spy. “He never has been, and never could be. I know that for a fact,” she said.

Pattis said her brother, a bachelor, had spent most of his adult life working in Iran. He had been there for six months on his current trip, working in Asadabad for a Bethesda, Md., company called Cosmos Engineers, before his arrest, she said.

A State Department official said he could not give details of the arrest, explaining that since Pattis was not a government employee such information could not be disclosed because of privacy laws.