US State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood told reporters the following at the August 4 press briefing:

I’d like to give you an update on this detained Iranian American scholar, Kian Tajbakhsh. We are deeply concerned of reports that Iranian American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh was recently charged by an Iranian court without the benefit of a lawyer. Given that the charges facing Mr. Tajbakhsh are without foundation, we call on Iran’s leadership to release Mr. Tajbakhsh without delay. He has played absolutely no role in the election and poses no threat to the Iranian Government or its national security. As an independent academic, Mr. Tajbakhsh has always sought out political neutrality.

The right to due process in Iran, which includes the right to legal representation, is not only addressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Iran is a signatory, it is also ratified in its own constitution. So the world is watching what is happening in Iran and will bear witness.

[Full briefing]

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Kian Tajbakhsh, Iran Arrests, iran crackdown, Iranian Election, show trials, televised show trials, US, US State Department