Iran Convicts Princeton Grad Student Of Spying

PRINCETON, NJ — On Sunday, Princeton University confirmed that it was one of their own graduate students who was arrested, tried and convicted in Iran for spying. Xiyue Wang, 37, a graduate student in the history department, is now facing 10 years in Iranian prison after he was found guilty by the Iranian government for being "an infiltrating American agent."

Wang was born in China, but has citizenship of both China and the U.S. He is studying Eurasian history and he was in Iran last summer doing research for his PhD, the Ivy League school said. However, on Sunday, a spokesman for the Iranian government confirmed that Wang was arrested, tried and convicted in Iran.

“He had entered the country through a special connection but the ministry of intelligence identified him and arrested him,” said spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i. “It became clear that he was involved in the infiltration project and the initial court has sentenced him to 10 years but this could be appealed.”

Princeton University said they are "distressed" at the news.

“We were very distressed to learn that charges were brought against him in connection with his scholarly work, and to learn of the subsequent conviction and sentence. We cannot comment more at the present time, except to say that the university continues to do everything it can to be supportive of Mr Wang and his family," said the university in a statement to the Guardian newspaper.

“Xiyue Wang is a fourth-year doctoral candidate … in the Department of History at Princeton University. His field is late 19th- and early 20th-century Eurasian history. He was in Iran last summer solely for the purpose of doing scholarly research on the administrative and cultural history of the late Qajar dynasty in connection with his PhD dissertation."

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department called for all U.S. citizens jailed in Iran to be immediately released. A Washington Post reporter, Jason Rezaian, who has both U.S. and Iranian citizenship, was held prisoner for 18 months by Iran after they accused him of spying. He was released in January of 2016, and said he was tortured.

“The Iranian regime continues to detain US citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security related changes,” said the State Department. “All US citizens, especially dual nationals considering travel to Iran, should carefully read our latest travel warning.”‎

Patch file photo of Princeton University