Wife Appeals for Information on Husband Held in Iran

Shakeri, a mortgage banker and resident of Irvine, Calif., may be the victim of an "enforced disappearance," the statement said.

Shakeri is a founding board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California at Irvine. On the organization's Web site, he is described as "an Iranian-American activist who advocates Democracy in Iran and peace in the world." Shakeri was involved in bringing Ebadi to speak at the university, his wife said.

Also jailed in Iran are scholar Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh. The Iranian government also has refused to allow Parnaz Azima, a correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Farda, to leave the country since January. All three were charged Tuesday with espionage and endangering Iran's national security.

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson has been missing in Iran since he flew to Kish Island on March 8 on business. Tehran has either denied knowledge of Levinson's whereabouts or not responded to formal messages on his behalf, according to the State Department.

At a news conference yesterday, Wilson center Director Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said the think tank has contacted a dozen governments, including some with close ties to Iran, to ask them to intervene on Esfandiari's behalf.

Hamilton called on the Bush administration to make the detention issue part of the new U.S.-Iran dialogue that was launched Monday.

The State Department said yesterday that the bilateral talks are not likely to include hostage issues. "I expect that a very specific and limited forum focused on Iraq is likely to stay focused on Iraq," Casey told reporters.

Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said yesterday that he had brought up Esfandiari in his talks on Iran's nuclear program with Iranian national security adviser Ali Larijani in Madrid.