DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Chinese-American graduate student sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran for allegedly “infiltrating” the country and sending confidential material abroad is innocent of all charges against him, his professor at Princeton University said on Monday.
Xiyue Wang’s arrest, which authorities said happened nearly a year ago, only came to light Sunday when Iran’s judiciary announced his sentence and the detention of President Hassan Rouhani’s brother in an unrelated case.
Princeton said that it is “very distressed” by the charges leveled against Wang while he was carrying out scholarly research in the Islamic Republic. It has been working Wang’s family, the U.S. government, lawyers and others to secure his release, it added.
“His family and the university are distressed at his continued imprisonment and are hopeful that he will be released after his case is heard by the appellate authorities in Tehran,” the university said.
An article posted on Mizan Online, a website affiliated with the judiciary, said 37-year-old Wang was born in Beijing and entered Iran as a researcher who is fluent in Persian. It said he is a dual national of the United States and China.
He has already filed an appeal to his sentence, according to the website.
Wang was arrested on Aug. 8, 2016 and is accused of passing confidential information about Iran to the U.S. State Department, Princeton’s Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School and the British Institute of Persian Studies, Mizan Online said.
