Kian Tajbakhsh, who NPR's Jacki Lyden profiled Saturday on Weekend Edition, was denied bail today by authorities at Tehran's infamous Evin Prison.

Weekend Edition supervising senior producer Davar Iran Ardalan received word that Tajbakhsh's lawyer was told by officials that the Iranian-American scholar is considered a "national security threat."

As Jacki reported, Tajbakhsh is "a 47-year-old Columbia University scholar who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage." His alleged crime: e-mailing videos of last summer's public demonstrations following the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Free Kian '09 is a website devoted to spreading word about Tajbakhsh's case.

Here is Jacki's story: