US spy sentenced to 10 years in jail in Iran

TEHRAN (defapress) – A Chinese-born American dual national has been sentenced to 10 years in jail on charges of spying for the US government, Iranian judicial spokesman said Sunday.

News ID: 65320

Date: 17 July 2017 - 11:07

Iranian judicial spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeie announced in a weekly press briefing in Tehran on Sunday that an American dual national has been sentenced to ten years in jail for being "an infiltrating American agent”.

According to an informed source, the spy is a 37-year-old Chinese-born American dual national with a good command on Persian language who had been trying to access Iran's classified documents under the guise of a historical researcher.

The source added that Xiyue Wang entered Iran under the guise of a graduate student in history to carry out field studies on Iran for an "infiltrating project”. His articles, either published online or classified as confidential and highly confidential, have been handed over to US State Department's research team, the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the British Institute of Persian Studies.

According to the source, the spy had managed to make a digital archive of 4500 pages of documents before being arrested. He had been under covert surveillance by experienced experts since his arrival in Iran, the source added.

Wang was arrested on August 8, 2016, while attempting to leave Iran for a European country.

In the same announcement Sunday, Mohseni-Ejei said Hossein Fereydoun, the brother of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, has been sent to prison on Sunday over charges of "financial irregularities."

He added that Fereydoun has been under investigation along with others, and was sent to jail after failing to secure the bail. He stressed that Fereydoun’s charges were related to financial issues, but had nothing to do with bank arrears.