Iran confirms freed another detained dual national

TEHRAN, Sep 20 (Reuters) Iran has confirmed the release of a detained Iranian-American academic but judiciary officials said he was not allowed to leave the country, the official IRNA news agency reported today.

Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant with George Soros's New York-based Open Society Institute, was detained in May on spying charges while visiting Iran. The institute had earlier said he had been freed late on Wednesday but gave no details.

''Tajbakhsh was released yesterday night on around 100,000 dollars bail, but he cannot leave the country,'' a judiciary spokesman said. ''The judge of his case should issue special permission to lift the ban on his departure.'' Another Iranian-American academic also detained in May on the same charges, Haleh Esfandiari, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, was released on bail in August. She returned to the United States earlier this month.

Another dual national, Ali Shakeri, is still in jail.

REUTERS SZ AS1352