A California-based peace activist and businessman, Shakeri was detained in May while on a private trip to Iran to visit family members. He was held by the Iranian authorities for 138 days under the vaguely worded accusation of intending to harm national security. The Iranians have never made clear what he is supposed to have done.
Radio Farda reported today that Shakeri was freed from Evin prison on September 24 on bail of 1 billion rials ($107,000). It is unclear whether he has permission to leave the country.
In a conversation today with Radio Farda, the press officer for the London-based rights group Amnesty International, Nicole Choueiry, welcomed the news, "and we also ask the Iranian authorities to offer a detailed explanation of why he was arrested, including the charges that were brought against him."
His release came just before Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad was due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York later today, and it appears it could be a gesture on the Iranian side linked to the delivery of the speech.
"It's true that Mr. Ali Shakeri's release coincided with Mr. Ahmadinejad's visit to the United States, however, at Amnesty International we don't think improving the human-rights situation should be subjected to any political considerations," Choueiry said. "Human rights should be given a priority at all times and in any circumstance."
Last Of Four U.S. Citizens Held
Shakeri is a board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, which studies how citizens can promote peace in divided societies.
He is one of four dual Iranian-American citizens who were detained or prevented from leaving Iran in the course of this year. The others were Haleh Esfandiari, a scholar at the U.S. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; social scientist and urban planner Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant to the New York-based Open Society Institute; and Parnaz Azima, a reporter for U.S.-funded Radio Farda.
Azima was the only one of the four not jailed, but her passport was confiscated.
All faced various security-related accusations, and all have recently been released. Esfandiari and Azima have now flown out of Iran. Tajbakhsh must get the permission of a judge before he can leave Iran.
News agencies have quoted diplomats as suggesting the Iranian actions against the Iranian-Americans are possibly retaliation for the arrest by the U.S. military of five Iranians in Iraq in January.
The incidents have increased tension between Tehran and Washington at a time of growing concern about the Iranian nuclear program, which the United States claims is aimed at making a nuclear weapon. That charge has repeatedly been rejected by Iranian officials, most recently by President Ahmadinejad during an appearance at Columbia University in New York on September 24.