[JURIST] A senior judicial official in Iran said Sunday that prosecutors have completed their investigation into two Iranian-American scholars who have been detained since May. Deputy Prosecutor Hassan Haddad said that the two scholars - Dr. Haleh Esfandiari [WWC profile] of the DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Open Society Institute consultant Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh [OSI press release] - "have some written work to do" and that a final decision would be made after that work was completed. Haddad did not elaborate further.

Esfandiari is accused of being involved in an alleged plot "against the sovereignty of the country" and there have been allegations that the two scholars were involved in a plot against the government. Iran said in July that prosecutors had expanded their investigations [JURIST report] into the alleged conspiracy after finding evidence supporting charges of endangering national security. In June, Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi [advocacy website, in Persian] accused the Iranian government of interfering in judicial affairs to prevent Esfandiari's release [JURIST report]. Ebadi has also accused the Iranian government of denying lawyers access to Esfandiari [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.