NPR

Academic Adviser Of U.S. Student Jailed In Iran: 'Everything He Did Was Normal'

Iran says it has sentenced the Princeton student to 10 years for spying. He may have been caught up in a power struggle between hardliners and the more moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani.

Iran says it has sentenced an American graduate student to 10 years in prison for spying for U.S. and British intelligence agencies. The Princeton University student was in Iran doing research when he was arrested.

Xiyue Wang, 37, is pursuing a Ph.D. in Eurasian history, studying local government in predominantly Muslim regions during the late 19th and early 20th, Wang's advisor at Princeton, says Wang came well-prepared for an extremely ambitious thesis topic.

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