The case of the US-Iranians detained in Iran on suspicion of harming national security is still in the hands of the investigating judge, two-and-a-half months after their arrest, the judiciary said on Tuesday.
Academics Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh have been held in Tehran's Evin prison since their arrest in May, in a case that further strained ties with arch-foe the United States.
"What will happen to these people is up to the judge," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters, responding to a question over whether the trio could be released or sent to court for trial.
"Their case, like other cases, has a legal procedure, I cannot forecast for the time being the outcome. Based on the context of the case, the judge will issue his decision," he said.
His comments came after Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh earlier this month gave "interviews" to Iranian television apparently implicating themselves in alleged US efforts to topple Iran's clerical authorities.
The programme, entitled "In the Name of Democracy", did not show a third US-Iranian, Ali Shakeri, whom the authorities have said was arrested at a similar time to Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh on the same charges.
Meanwhile, Jamshidi also denied a report attributed to Iran's intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie saying that several Iranians had recently been arrested by the authorities in the same case.
"I asked the deputy Tehran prosecutor in charge of security (Hassan Hadad) and he said that no one has been arrested in this regard," he said.
Jamshidi added that the television appearance of Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh had shown that "they are in good condition."
A fourth US-Iranian, Parnaz Azima, a broadcaster with Radio Free Europe's Prague-based Persian language arm Radio Farda, also faces the same charges but is not being detained
However her passport has been confiscated and she is unable to leave Iran.