Iran Judge To Free Or Indict 4 Americans

A judge will decide within the next few days whether to indict or free four Iranian-Americans charged with endangering national security, Iran's judiciary spokesman said Tuesday, as another top Iranian official threatened to make the U.S. "regret" holding five Iranians captive in Iraq.

Ali Reza Jamshidi said a judge would complete his preliminary investigation into the charge against the four "within the next two or three days."

"The judge will decide by next week whether to free or indict them,'' Jamshidi told a press conference.

The four include Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who was jailed in Iran in early May.

The others are Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society Institute; Parnaz Azima, a journalist who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda; and Ali Shakeri, a founding board member of the University of California, Irvine, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding.

Jamshidi said all four have been charged with acting against national security. Several weeks ago, he said they had also been charged with espionage, but he did not repeat that charge in Tuesday's press conference.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki lashed out over five Iranian officials detained in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil by U.S. troops in January, who still remain in U.S. custody. The U.S. military has said they are suspected of links to a network supplying arms to Iraqi insurgents — an accusation that Iran has denied.

"We will make the Americans regret their ugly and illegal act," Mottaki was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. He didn't elaborate on how Iran will make Washington regret the action.

Iran claimed the men were diplomats and that the building U.S. troops occupied was a government liaison office. It also says the five were the guests of the Iraqi government and has demanded their release. Iraqi government officials have also called for their release, along with compensation for damages.

Unconfirmed reports say the five included the operations chief and other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.

The five have not been charged with a crime. The United States has allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the men but has so far not allowed Iranian representatives to visit them.

Mottaki said Iran will send a formal letter to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon within the next few days to protest inaction by the Security Council and delays in taking up the issue of the five Iranians' detention.

The four captive Iranian-Americans were in Iran visiting family or working, according to the U.S. State Department, relatives and employers.

The United States has criticized the detentions but Iran insists America has no right to interfere.