Iran sentences U.S. man to 12 years

TEHRAN, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A man with dual American-Iranian citizenship was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison for protesting the Iranian presidential election, his lawyer said.

Kian Tajbakhsh was arrested in July along with over 1,000 others who had been detained after a government crackdown following the disputed election in June, CNN reported.

The protesters challenged the Iranian election authority's declaration that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the clear winner of the June 12 election.

Tajbakhsh was tried with almost 100 others, including former government officials, reform leaders and journalists.

The attorney for Tajbakhsh, the only America tried over the post-election turmoil, said he plans to appeal.

The Iran Revolutionary Court's verdict against Tajbakhsh is unclear, but he had faced numerous charges, including planning a revolution against the government through his work with the Open Society Institute, a group that says it works for tolerant democracies worldwide, CNN said.

The State Department expressed deep concern about the trial and detention of Tajbakhsh.

"It is a show trial. There's no doubt about it," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "It demonstrates, I think, better than any of us could ever say that this Iranian leadership is afraid of their own people and afraid of the truth and the facts coming out."