An Iranian-American held in Tehran has reportedly been sentenced to 18 years in prison for “collaboration with a hostile government.” The sentence was handed down to Robin Shahini, a 46-year-old graduate student who lives in San Diego, AP reported. In an interview with Vice News aired on Monday, Shahini acknowledged supporting the protests that followed Iran’s 2009 presidential election, but denied being involved in any sort of spying. “Whatever information they had is all the pictures I posted in Facebook, in my web blog and they use all those evidence to accuse me,” Shahini said in a telephone call from prison. Shahini, who traveled to Iran to see his mother, was detained on July 11. He left Iran in 1998 and has lived in San Diego for 16 years. He graduated in May from San Diego State University with a degree in international security and conflict resolution and had been accepted to SDSU’s graduate program in homeland security.
