Wife of Xiyue Wang, US-Chinese Princeton historian held in Iran, pleads for his release

The wife of a Princeton graduate student sentenced to 10 years behind bars in Iran called on authorities there to release him Tuesday, saying the Chinese-American historian has been “unjustly imprisoned.”

Xiyue Wang, also a former Hong Kong resident, was arrested nearly a year ago but his confinement only became known Sunday when Iran’s judiciary announced his sentence, accusing him of “infiltrating” the country and sending confidential material abroad.

The 36-year-old, described by Iranian authorities as holding both Chinese and American citizenship, was in Iran doing research for his doctorate in late 19th and early 20th century Eurasian history when he was detained.

In her first comments on his case, Wang’s wife Hua Qu described her husband as “one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and most loving men I have ever known.” She said the couple has a four-year-old son.

“Our son has missed his father for more than a year of his young life, as my husband has been unjustly imprisoned for espionage that I know he did not and never would commit,” she said in a statement distributed by Princeton.

“We fervently hope that the Iranian authorities will release him soon so that he can return home to his young family,” she added.