(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-03 22:34

TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian-American academic imprisoned for months and accused of trying to create a "soft revolution" in Iran was permitted to leave the country and rejoin her family, her lawyer and family said Monday.

An image grab taken from footage broadcast by the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) shows US-Iranian Haleh Esfandiari, July 2007. Esfandiari has left Iran after her release on bail from three months in jail on security charges. [AFP]

Haleh Esfandiari, 67, who was released on bail in August, picked up her passport and flew late Sunday from Iran to Austria, where her sister lives, said her daughter, Haleh Bakhash.

She plans to stay in Austria, where she will be reunited with her husband, for a week before heading home to the United States, Bakhash said.

"She had some indication that she would get her passport back but she didn't know when. It was a complete surprise to all of us, and a relief," Bakhash told The Associated Press from her home in Washington.

The unexpected development came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last week that his government was not opposed to Esfandiari's departure, but that the the Iranian judiciary would have to sort out the issue.

Esfandiari's family and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where she is head of the Middle East program, have denied the allegations against her.

Though Esfandiari got back her passport, which authorities first seized in January, her daughter was unclear whether charges against her remained.

"We don't know where any of that stands. We know she is free to go and got her passport back," Bakhash said.

Her lawyer in Iran, Abdol Fattah Soltani, told The Associated Press that Esfandiari got her passport and left Iran afterward, but he had no more details.

Last month, another lawyer for Esfandiari, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, said there was no legal obstacle standing in the way of her client rejoining her family back in the United States, but she has to return to Iran to stand trial over charges of endangering national security.

Esfandiari was released on bail Aug. 21 from Tehran's Evin prison where she was held since May. Her 93-year-old mother used the deed to her Tehran apartment to post bail.

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