UPDATE Sunday, 4:45 p.m.: Columbia is once again calling for Tajbakhsh’s release. See below for full statement.

According to news reports, Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American urban planner who earned a Ph.D. from Columbia, faces a new charge of spying.

According to the New York Times, Tajbakhsh—already sentenced to 15 years in prison for spying—recently told his wife during her prison visit that a judge at the Revolutionary Court read new charges of “spying for the George Soros foundation” on Monday. The count referenced his work for the Open Society Institute, run by Soros, a financier.

Tajbakhsh, who was supposed to teach at Columbia this semester, was arrested this summer in the aftermath of Iran’s post-election upheaval. He had been imprisoned two years earlier for “fomenting revolution,” and was released on the evening Columbia announced that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be speaking there.

Tajbakhsh remains in solitary confinement following the earlier charges that connected OSI with the CIA. He appealed the 15-year sentence. An anonymous family member told the Times that Tajbakhsh is suffering “huge psychological and physical pressure.” According to his wife, the Times reports, the judge of the new case said he would rule based on Tajbakhsh’s previous defense.

On Sunday, Columbia’s Executive Vice President for Communications David Stone released a statement defending Tajbakhsh, and emphasizing his status as a Columbia faculty member as of Sept. 1, 2009:

“We join in the White House’s renewed call for Kian Tajbakhsh’s prompt release from his unjust imprisonment in Iran and share the concern of family and friends about the latest unfounded charges brought against him. President Bollinger, Dean Wigley, Global Centers Vice President Ken Prewitt and others both at Columbia and the New School have repeatedly asked that Prof. Tajbakhsh, an American citizen and respected scholar not involved in politics, be allowed to leave Iran with his family and continue his academic career in urban planning here at Columbia. Members of our university community should be aware that Prof. Tajbakhsh is not only a Columbia alumnus, but as of September 1, also a member of our faculty at the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; so his arrest, trial and imprisonment in Iran should therefore concern all of us.”

On Thursday, the White House condemned Iran for its treatment of Tajbakhsh, with press secretary Robert Gibbs calling the charges “baseless” in the statement below:

“The United States is deeply concerned about reports of additional charges facing Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar who has been detained in Iran without access to an independent lawyer since July 9, 2009. The charges against Mr. Tajbakhsh are baseless, and his original sentence on October 20 was an outrage. The Iranian government cannot earn the respect of the international community when it violates universal rights, and continues to imprison innocent people. We call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to release Mr. Tajbakhsh, and to respect the human rights of those within its borders.”