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A worried man: Shaul Bakhash fears that his wife, Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, is being treated poorly in a Tehran prison.

FOREIGN POLICY: How often did Dr. Esfandiari travel to Iran, and when did you first realize that she was in serious trouble?

Shaul Bakhash: Haleh has been going to Iran a couple times a year for the past decade, ever since her mother, due to age and a heart attack, was not able to travel. On December 30, Haleh was in Tehran on her way to the airport to fly back to Washington, D.C., when her car was stopped by knife-wielding masked men who took away all of her belongings, including her passports. [Esfandiari is a dual citizen of Iran and the United States.] When she started applying for new travel documents, the Intelligence Ministry began an interrogation that lasted over the next six weeks. I spoke to her fairly regularly during that time, although obviously we were cautious on the phone. We exchanged e-mails regularly as well. But then the questioning stopped. And for 10 weeks, Haleh heard nothing until she was summoned back to the Intelligence Ministry on the morning of May 8. When she showed up, she was sent immediately to Evin prison.

FP: What are the actual charges against her?

SB: Statements first issued by the minister of intelligence initially implicated the Wilson Center—but interestingly enough, not Haleh directly—in a U.S. government plan to bring about a “velvet” revolution in Iran. But soon after, the government upped the ante and stated that Haleh was accused of espionage and actions against the national security, and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. Even today, though, it’s not clear whether they are official charges or, more likely, accusations made by the ministry.

Obviously the charges are totally without foundation. They are fabrications. The Ministry of Intelligence hasn’t produced a shred of evidence to support any of them.

If we are to believe statements by government officials, the case of Parnaz Azima [of U.S.-backed Radio Farda, who was detained but has since been released on bond] is ready to go to trial. My wife, Haleh, Kian Tajbakhsh, who is a consultant to [financier George Soros’s] Open Society Institute, and Ali Shakeri, an academic and a democracy activist, have been in Evin prison since early May. One can say with confidence that the charges against all four are totally unfounded.

FP: Your family has retained the services of attorney and activist Shirin Ebadi, the winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. She herself was once incarcerated in Evin prison. Has she been able to make contact with your wife?

SB: Shirin Ebadi went to the Revolutionary Court, which is handling Haleh’s case, two days after a judiciary spokesperson said that she could represent her. But she was not given a meeting with the prosecutor handling the case, or even allowed into the building. The interrogator refused to accept the power of attorney that Ms. Ebadi had and therefore refused to allow her to look at the file. In the several weeks since then, Shirin Ebadi tried twice more to secure a meeting with the interrogator handling the case, but did not succeed. The interrogator even said, “Haleh Esfandiari does not need a lawyer.”

FP: Has anyone heard from Dr. Esfandiari? What are conditions like in the prison?

SB: Haleh has been allowed to make very brief phone calls to her mother in Tehran. These calls last barely a minute, and nothing of substance can be said during them. Our assumption is that there is always a minder standing behind her. But we have absolutely no information on what is going on inside the prison. Our assumption is that she’s still in solitary confinement. Shirin Ebadi describes the cells of Evin prison as very small. Prisoners in this particular security ward sleep on a blanket, not a mattress. Interrogation methods involve intimidation and threats, often fabrications designed to disorient and frighten the detainee. Obviously the aim is often to coerce a false confession from the detainee.

Haleh is 67 years old. She has a fairly serious eye problem, macular degeneration, which requires constant monitoring, and she hasn’t been able to see her eye doctor since she was stopped from leaving Iran. She also has a bone condition which needs monitoring, and we’re not sure whether she has the medications she needs in Evin prison. On one occasion, when her mother tried to deliver some pills that she needs, they refused to accept delivery at the prison gate. Her mother is 93 years old, and we are also very worried about her anxiety and her mental and physical condition as a result of this incarceration.

FP: Why do you think the Iranian government has decided to make these arrests now? Is it in retaliation for the United States detaining five Iranians in Iraq in January?