Yale Law Puts Employee On ‘Immediate Administrative Leave’ After Alleged Connections To Pro-Terror Organization Revealed

Helyeh Doutaghi, an Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School, has been placed on “immediate administrative leave” less than 24 hours after reports were published outlining Doutaghi’s alleged connections to the Samidoun Network, a designated terrorist organization. 

Alden Ferro, Senior Associate Director of Public Affairs at Yale Law School, tells The Buckley Beacon in an email, “We take these allegations extremely seriously and immediately opened an investigation into the matter to ascertain the facts.” Ferro then noted that Doutaghi’s “short-term position as an associate research scholar with the LPE Project expires next month,” a position she has held since September 2023. 

“Until then, [Doutaghi] has been placed on an immediate administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation,” Ferro furthered. 

Ferro’s statement comes less than 24 hours after The Beacon republished a March 2 report from the “Jewish Onliner,” a Substack publication, outlining Doutaghi’s alleged connections to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network, an organization designated by both the Canadian and US governments as a “specially designated global terrorist” organization, or SDGT. The designation, announced in October 2024 through coordinated press releases by the Canadian government and US Department of Treasury, accuses Samidoun of being a “sham charity” for another terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP.

In July 2022, Samidoun identified Doutaghi as a “doctoral student of international law and a member of the international Samidoun network,” where Doutaghi supposedly delivered a virtual speech during a film screening of “Feyadin: George Abdullah’s Fight” at the Tehran chapter of Samidoun. Doutaghi was a doctoral candidate at Carleton University at the time. 

Per the “Jewish Onliner” report, Doutaghi has also been present in Iranian state-owned media, doing so in her official capacity as a Yale employee. 

In August 2024, for example, Doutaghi was interviewed by Press TV, a state-owned media organization based in Tehran, where she deplored “US imperialism” in her capacity as a “legal scholar” at “Yale University.” Press TV is currently sanctioned by the US government. 

A few months prior to her appearance on Press TV, Doutaghi appeared on an internet webinar with Saeed Jalili, Ayatollah Khomenei’s current representative to the Supreme National Security Council, where she was allegedly presented as a “professor at Yale University.”

Ferro did not provide a specific time for the conclusion of the pending investigation. Doutaghi did not respond to The Beacon’s request for comment.

This story is breaking and will be updated once more information comes in.