Iran adds ‘evidence’ against 2 detainees

Iran’s judiciary has “broadened” investigations of the cases of two detained Iranian Americans charged with endangering national security, saying there is fresh evidence, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Prosecutors “obtained new evidence in line with the charges brought against” Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said. “The case is under investigation,” he told reporters without elaborating.

Esfandiari, the Middle East program director for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was jailed in early May. Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with George Soros’ Open Society Institute, is also held on security charges.

Facing similar charges are two other Iranian Americans: Parnaz Azima, a journalist for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda, and Ali Shakeri, a founding board member of UC Irvine’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding.

While Shakeri is in jail, Azima is free but barred from leaving the country.

Family members, colleagues and employers of the four deny the allegations.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry accuses Esfandiari and her organization of trying to create a “soft revolution” in Iran to topple the hard-line Islamic regime, similar to the bloodless revolutions that ended communist rule in Eastern Europe.

International human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have expressed deep concern for the health of those detained -- especially the 67-year-old Esfandiari, held in Tehran’s Evin prison.

Esfandiari was in Iran to visit her 93-year-old mother in December when three masked men with knives seized her luggage and passport as she headed to the airport, preventing her from leaving the country, the Wilson center says.