Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has responded to the letter sent in January by Columbia faculty regarding the detainment of scholar Kian Tajbakhsh in Iran.
A Columbia faculty member in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Tajbakhsh was supposed to assume his faculty position in September 2009 but was arrested in Iran during the aftermath of the elections this past summer. On Jan. 11, members of the Columbia faculty sent a letter to Clinton asking for her help in obtaining Tajbakhsh’s release from prison. The letter was delivered to Clinton by Barnard Slavic professor Catharine Nepomnyashchy, who also signed the letter.
The letter is dated Feb. 1.
In Clinton’s response, she said that the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has been in contact with Tajbakhsh’s family since July, and has urged Iranian authorities to allow Swiss officials to visit him.
“To, date, Iranian authorities have not granted consular access, noting that Dr. Tajbakhsh is an Iranian citizen under Iranian laws,” Clinton wrote.
“The espionage charges leveled against Dr. Tajbakhsh are groundless,” she added.
In October, Tajbakhsh received a 15-year jail sentence for allegedly threatening national security and spying, though he appealed the sentence. Last Wednesday, the Iranian appellate court reduced his sentence to five years.
“The State Department is using every available diplomatic tool to achieve Dr. Tajbakhsh’s release. We continue to communicate our concern about his welfare and have asked other governments to urge the Iranian government to release him without further delay,” she wrote.
But some faculty members were worried about Iran’s response to the State Department’s requests.
Tanya Domi, an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs who signed the letter to Clinton, wrote in an email, “I was concerned to read that the Iranian authorities have not permitted the Swiss consular interest section to visit Kian, insisting he is an Iranian citizen, thus ignoring his U.S. citizenship.” Further adding that the Swiss consular interests represent U.S. concerns to the Iranian government since the U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Iran.
“Not permitting Kian to meet with Swiss diplomatic representatives could be in violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Iran is obligated to notify the Swiss Consular section whenever an American citizen has been detained by its authorities. This is of great concern to me,” Domi said.
Some faculty members were surprised that Clinton responded, and said they were satisfied with her response.
“Our primary objective in writing to Secretary Clinton is to keep Kian’s situation and his illegal imprisonment on the front burner of the State Department’s priorities,” Domi said. “I think we have achieved that objective given Secretary Clinton’s response to us.”
“I wasn’t expecting to get a letter from Hillary Clinton,” Nepomnyashchy said, but was pleased to see a response.
Clinton has “been very on top of this,” she said, adding that the most important thing to her was keeping the pressure on the Iranian government.
“Her quick response tells me her office is fully engaged on Kian’s case,” Domi said. She added that the faculty received an almost immediate confirmation of receipt when their letter was sent in January.
The letter to Clinton was signed by 20 Columbia faculty members, including Dean John Coatsworth of SIPA; Dean Nicholas Lemann of the Columbia Journalism School; Dean Peter Awn of the School of General Studies and director of SIPA’s Middle East Institute; Elazar Barkan, director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights; and Iranian scholar Gary Sick.
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