Iran has brought formal charges of spying against a prominent academic, Haleh Esfandiari, and two other Iranian-Americans under arrest there, according to the Associated Press. Ms. Esfandiari “has been formally charged with endangering national security through propaganda against the system and espionage for foreigners,” a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary told reporters today.

Ms. Esfandiari, 67, is director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was prevented from leaving Iran in December after visiting her ailing 93-year-old mother. Earlier this month, after weeks of interrogations, she was placed in Tehran’s Evin prison. Her incarceration has prompted a wave of protests among Middle East scholars.

The Iranian spokesman said similar charges had been filed against KianTajbakhsh, 45, who is a consultant for George Soros’s Open Society Institute and has worked for the World Bank; and Parnaz Azima, a journalist with the U.S.-backed Radio Farda. Last week Iran’s Intelligence Ministry accused Ms. Esfandiari of trying to foment a “soft revolution” in Iran.

Shaul Bakhash, a professor of Middle Eastern history at George Mason University and Ms. Esfandiari’s husband, expressed concern for her in a commentary in Friday’s Los Angeles Times. “I have every reason to assume the worst: that she is subject to blindfolding, solitary confinement, and harsh, even brutal interrogation calculated to extract a false confession.” —Burton Bollag