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NEW YORK, Aug 21 (OneWorld) - An American scholar jailed in Iran for over three months has been released, following weeks of protests by international human rights groups.

© Woodrow Wilson International Center for ScholarsReports from Iran's state-controlled media said Tuesday Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is out of prison, but still faces charges of spying for the United States.

It is unclear whether Esfandiari will be allowed to leave Iran anytime soon.

She was arrested in May while visiting her mother in Tehran. Since then, she has been in detention in Tehran's Evin prison.

The Iranian authorities justified Esfandiari's arrest by contending that she was involved in propaganda activities that endangered Iran's "national security."

Esfandiari, who is a researcher at the Woodrow Wilson Center, an influential Washington, DC-based think tank, strongly denies such allegations.

Prior to her arrest, she was repeatedly questioned about her work as the director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center.

Esfandiari's colleagues at the Wilson Center, family members, and human rights organizations that helped secure her release said they were relieved to know that she was free.

"We rejoice," said Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Wilson Center. "This has been a long and trying ordeal for her and for her family."

Esfandiari's husband Shaul Bakhash, who lives in the United States, told reporters he felt "extremely good."

Hamilton said he and his colleagues wanted Esfandiari to be permitted to return to the United States because all the charges against her are false and baseless.

Last month, Iranian television broadcast a report in which Esfandiari apparently said a network of foreign activists were plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.

But Hamilton and others at the Center claim that the statement was "coerced" by the Iranian authorities.

Tehran's Evin prison is notorious for its treatment of political prisoners, according to the Feminist Majority Foundation, one of many international human rights groups that applied pressure for Esfandiari's release after her detention passed the 100-day mark last week. Thousands of activists took action through the organization's Web site in recent days to press Iran over the case.

There have been no diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed monarchy in 1979.

Many observers believe that Esfandiari's arrest was based on mere suspicions rather than evidence about the possible attempts by the U.S. government to infiltrate into antigovernment political groups in Iran.

In recent months, aggressive U.S. moves over Iran's nuclear program and its military buildup in the Arabian Gulf have also fueled the ongoing hostility between Washington and Tehran.

Like Esfandiari, another Iranian-American academic, Kian Tajbakhsh, was also arrested on spying charges. It is not clear whether his bail application has been accepted or not.

In both cases, the accused are being defended by Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the Noble prize-winning human rights activist.

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