Xiyue Wang

He is a Chinese-born US citizen. He attended Harvard and Princeton universities and has been researching the Qajar period in Iran. He is another US citizen arrested in Iran on charges of espionage

<coverage-outsourcing id='16938'> Based on a report published by the Judiciary-affiliate website, he was arrested on this date while departure from Iran. The site reports that he was trying to create a "digital archive for the largest spy agency against Iran" and after having trouble accessing "important and classified documents of the libraries of some organizations", and has taken help from one [Ms. Reihanpour] in order to access this information, he was "worried about his condition" and "when leaving the country to a European country, was arrested with the vigilance of the experts and the order of the investigator of the Tehran Security Court on August 8, 2016.” The date of his arrest, announced by his family and Princeton University, is August 7, 2016 </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18686'> Voice of America Persian reported that American diplomats on the sidelines of the Barjam Commission (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Commission) with their Iranian peers, once again, asked for the freedom of American prisoners </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='17411'> Princeton University has regretted the issuance of a 10-year prison sentence for Mr. Wang </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='16939'> Mizan, a Judiciary affiliate website, reported that he was acting in the form of an "infiltration" project on three levels of open, confidential, and highly confidential articles, and provided information to the US State Department's Research Team, Shermin Institute and Bijan Mosavvar Rahmani (from Princeton University), the Kennedy School of Harvard University and the British Institute for the Study of Humanities. He had managed to record a digital archive of 4500 pages of the country’s documents prior to his arrest "and his actions were carried out under the invisible witnessing of "the case’s experienced experts”. The "infiltration project" in the literature of the media close to the security institutions and government officials, including the leader, is said to be a series of activities that they do aiming at "infiltration" in Iran, “transmutation” and "soft overthrow" of the government. </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='16941'> Stephen Kotkin, Wang’s adviser at Princeton, described him as a gifted scholar who was impressed with Persian culture. “Xiyue Wang is a remarkable, linguistically gifted graduate student studying late 19th- and early 20th-century governance in predominantly Muslim regions — Qajar Iran, Afghanistan, imperial Russian Turkestan,” he said. “He is innocent of all the charges. In Tehran, Wang collected documents that were 100 years old. He has told me often of his exhilaration at the exquisiteness and depth of Persian civilization.” (Washington Post) </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='16940'> Mohseni-Eje’i told in his press conference: > One of the United States’ infiltrators, who, of course, is a dual citizen, entered Iran in a particular cover. He has been led directly by the Americans and has been identified and arrested, He added that he was sentenced to 10 years in primary trial </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='16942'> The American researcher sentenced to ten years in prison for spying in Iran is not a Chinese national, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said (Shanghai Daily) </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='16989'> Xiyou Wang's wife, Hua Qu, said in a statement to the media that she believed her spouse had not spied and had been "unfairly" imprisoned, according to a report from the Voice of America, quoting the Associated Press </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='17068'> Heather Nauert, the US State Department spokesman, asked for the freedom of Xiyue Wang, Bagher and Siamak Namazi and the other unjustly detained prisoners </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='17188'> “Asr-e-Iran” reported that the US government issued a statement calling for the release of American prisoners in Iran. The statement states that "for forty years, hostage-taking has been used as a political solution in Iran, and the latest example is the 10-year prison sentence for Xiyue Wang." The statement warned Iran that it would be "punished" if it refrained from releasing prisoners. Mr Trump also called for the release of Robert Levinson. Shortly thereafter, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry described the White House statement as "interference in internal affairs" and called on the United States to release Iranian prisoners. Mr. Ghasemi also said that the Islamic Republic "does not have any new knowledge" about the fate of Robert Levinson </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18223'> According to Center for Human Rights, Hua Qu, Xiyou Wang’s wife, offered some explanations in conversation with Princeton University. According to Mrs. Qu, Mr. Wang traveled to Iran for his doctorate project in summer 2016 and was arrested in Tehran on August 7, 2016 and was transferred to Evin. He was charged with "espionage" in February. He was tried in April 2017 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, and that Mrs. Qu had not been informed of him since her husband's detention, and then did not regularly contact him </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18308'> Voice of America Persian reported that more than one thousand scholars, worldwide, demanded his freedom </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='18535'> "Iranian authorities have denied Xiyue Wang’s appeal of his conviction and 10-year prison sentence for espionage that he did not attempt or commit," Princeton University said in a statement </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='19705'> The American Senate passed Resolution 245 asking the government to prioritize the freedom of “American hostages” in Iran. At the same time, Thomas Reuters Foundation published an official letter denying the claim that Ms Zaghari was “teaching journalism”. IPA will, from now on, not record the opinions of political figures and human rights groups in connection with this case in this profile page, rather, it will, only on special occasions, record the statement of human rights organizations and politicians </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='20068'> News program “20:30” from the official television of Iranian government broadcasted a “documentary” called "Passenger of Documents" brought charges such as "trying to transfer 4,500 documents from libraries" and "using keywords that are more conducive to research on the reasons for the collapse of governments in Iran, people who are influential in the collapse and the reason for the continuation of the religious rule in Iran " to Xiyue Wang. The narrator of this "documentary," introduced Harvard and Princeton universities in the United States, as the coverage of US security agencies, and emphasized the use of scholarly facilities between Iranian and American universities for security purposes. Pictures of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe also appeared in this video. Some critics say copying documents from libraries that are accessible to the general public and investigating the reasons for the continuation and collapse of governments cannot be considered spying and Mr. Wang's arrest in pursuing the efforts of the Iranian government's security apparatus to pressure western countries or is related to the internal conflict of government </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='20238'> Academe blog, quoting his wife, wrote that Xiyou Wang is in poor physical condition, including knee and back pain </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='20236'> According to a report from the Academe Blog, he was transferred to Ward 7 of Evin Prison on this date, but because of the fact that another prisoner had threatened to kill him, prison authorities have changed their place of detention. According to the report in previous months, Mr. Wang was in ward 7, and this prisoner has severely beaten him. The assailant is a suspect of membership in Taliban, previously detained in the US Forces Detention Center in Afghanistan </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='20388'> According to Hrana, he is incarcerated in ward 7 </coverage-outsourcing>
<coverage-outsourcing id='27850'> Xiyue Wang a Chinese-American citizen imprisoned in Evin Prison eventually released through secret negotiations between Iran and the US. At the same time, an Iranian scientist named Masoud Soleimani, was also released from a US prison. These two people returned to their countries after their freedom </coverage-outsourcing>