Statement:

We the undersigned, a group of Iranian academics and human rights activists residing outside the country, wish to thank the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for investigating the imprisonment of Mr. Xiyue Wang in Iran and concluding that there is “no legal basis for his arrest and detention.”

The New York Times covers the story with more details. 

We join the U. N. Working Group to demand the immediate release of Mr. Wang. The truth is that Mr. Wang is a hostage and the purpose of Iran’s theocrats is either to swap him for their convicted agents detained in the United States or collect money for his release. This is exactly what the Iranian government did when it arrested three American hikers – Joshua Fattal, Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer - in the border area of Iran and Iraq in 2009.

Sarah Shourd was released 14 months later on "humanitarian grounds." Fattal and Bauer were convicted to eight years imprisonment for “illegal entry” and “espionage.” Two years after their arrest each was released for payment of $465,000 arranged by the Sultan of Oman. 

The same kind of swap took place in 2016 when four dual citizen hostages, including the Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaaian, were release in exchange for cash >>>

A group of Iranian academics and human rights advocates, including Janet Afary, Mahnaz Afkhami, Ali Afshari, Reza Afshari, Kazem Alamdari, Mehrdad Amanat, Mehran Barati, Ali Banuazizi, Mehran Barati, Behrooz Bayat, Mehrzad Borojerdi, Homa Hoodfar, Houshang Chahabi, June Cole, Mehrdad Darvishpour, Shirin Ebadi, Mansour Farhang, Hadi Ghaemi, Gohari, Nader Hashemi, Homa Hoodfar, Parvaneh Hosseini, Ata Houdashtian, Mehrak Kamali-Sarvestani, Mehrangiz Kar, Kazem Kardevani, Ahmad Karimi-Hakak, Jaleh Lackner-Gohari, Ali-Akbar Mahdi, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mansoor Moaddel, Majid Naficy, Nasrin Rahimieh, Azadeh Pourzand, Jalil Roshandel, Hassan Shariatmadari, Kamran Talattof, Nayereh Tohidi, and Mandana Zandian.

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