Yale Law has fired an Iranian scholar over claims she refused to cooperate in an investigation into her alleged ties to a US-designated 'sham charity' linked to a terrorist group.
Iranian-born Helyeh Doutaghi was fired from the Ivy League school on March 28, three weeks after being put on administrative leave over allegations that she was part of the Samidoun Network - a US-designated terrorist organization.
But, Doutaghi, 30, an outspoken critic of Israel who worked at the prestigious university as an associate research scholar and deputy director of the school's Law and Political Economy Project, has since denied the claims.
She believes she was fired because of her criticism of the war in Gaza, as colleges around the country face financial pressure to crack down on antisemitism from the Trump administration.
In a statement, Yale Law said that the Doutaghi, who is in the US on a visa, was terminated after she refused, for several weeks, to appear in person to answer questions about 'serious allegations' that included a possible connection to the 'charity.'
'Over the last three weeks, Yale has repeatedly requested to meet with Ms. Doutaghi and her attorney to obtain clarifying information and resolve this matter,' Yale spokesperson Alden Ferro said in a statement.
'Unfortunately, she has refused to meet to provide any responses to critical questions, including whether she has ever engaged in prohibited activity with organizations or individuals that were placed on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list.'
The Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network was designated in October as a 'sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization' by both the US and Canada, the Associated Press reported.
The university, located in New Haven, Connecticut, cited a posting on Samidoun's website which identifies Doutaghi as a member of the group among the materials it was reviewing.
Doutaghi, however, said that posting was from 2022 when Samidoun wasn´t designated as a terror-supporting group.
She added that the Ivy League school has yet to produce any evidence that she was involved in such a group.
Another webpage listed the Iranian scholar as a speaker in an online panel discussion in October 2024 sponsored by Samidoun and other groups.
However, Doutaghi said she did not take part in that event because it was canceled or postponed and that Samidoun was not the main organizer of the discussion.
When asked if she was a member of Samidoun, or affiliated with it in some other way, she would only say that she is not involved in any group that violates US law, according to the Associated Press.
Doutaghi and her lawyer, Eric Lee, said they offered to answer Yale's questions about her affiliations in writing as the 30-year-old immigrant said her concerns about being detained and deported were a factor in not wanting to appear in person.
'This has become part of the fascism that is unfolding in this country, that people who dare to speak up against genocide and the US support for it and complicity in it, they have to expect to pay the price with their careers, with their livelihoods, with their jobs, students with their degrees, as we've seen at Columbia, we've seen at Cornell and elsewhere,' she said in a phone interview, referring to pro-Palestinian students at those schools who have been targeted for deportation.
The allegations about Doutaghi were first made by Jewish Onliner, a Substack 'Empowered by A.I. capabilities,' according to its X account.
'Rather than defend me, the Yale Law School moved within less than 24 hours of learning about the report to place me on leave,' Doutaghi wrote in a statement on X earlier this month.
Doutaghi and her lawyer, Eric Lee, said they offered to answer Yale's questions about her affiliations in writing as the 30-year-old immigrant said her concerns about being detained and deported were a factor in not wanting to appear in person.
'I was given only a few hours' notice by the administration to attend an interrogation based on far-right AI-generated allegations against me, while enduring a flood of online harassment, death threats, and abuse by Zionist trolls, exacerbating ongoing unprecedented distress and complications both at work and at home.'
Doutaghi was appointed deputy director of the Law and Political Economy Project at the unversity in October 2023.
According to her bio on the Palestine Center for Public Policy website, her 'research explores the intersections of the Third World Approaches to International Law, encompassing Marxian and postcolonial critiques of law, sanctions, and international political economy.'
She is also an incoming post-doctoral fellow at the University of Tehran, according to the website, where her focus will be 'completing her manuscript on Iranian sanctions regime and neoliberalism.'