Federal charges accusing an assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine and a Kentucky biomedical researcher of violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran were dismissed after their co-defendant was swapped for a U.S. student imprisoned in Iran since 2016. 

Yale assistant professor and permanent U.S. resident Mahboobe Ghaedi was prepared to change her not guilty plea when the charges were dismissed, according to the court docket.  Co-defendant Maryam Jazayeri, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Kentucky resident, was scheduled to go to trial in February, said Page Pate, her Atlanta attorney.

But after the federal government exchanged Iranian professor Masoud Soleimani for imprisoned Princeton University student Xiyue Wang on Dec. 7, federal prosecutors in Atlanta dismissed the charges against Ghaedi and Jayazeri. Judge Eleanor Ross of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia signed the dismissal order on Dec. 11—just 24 hours after setting Jayazeri's trial date.