Submit your comments on this article | |||
Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |||
Iran arrests yet another dual national | |||
2016-08-17 | |||
[IsraelTimes] Iran increasingly targeting those with foreign citizenship, ties in wake of nuclear deal with world powers
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in the country. The circumstances surrounding this most-recent detention were unclear, but they come as hard-liners in Iran’s security forces increasingly target those with foreign ties in the wake of the country’s nuclear deal with world powers. Speaking to journalists, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi described the individual arrested as being "active in the economic field, related to Iran," the official IRNA news agency reported. Dolatabadi didn’t elaborate, saying only that the arrest took place last week. He also did not identify the individual’s second nationality. Iran does not recognize dual nationalities, meaning those detained cannot receive consular assistance. In previous cases involving dual nationals, like the detention of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, officials initially announced indictments had been handed down without providing specifics. Later, news organizations with close ties to security services offered details of the charges. Those detained typically face trial in Iran’s Revolutionary Court, a closed-door tribunal which handles cases involving alleged attempts to overthrow the government. Rezaian was convicted but later released in January as part of a prisoner swap between Iran and the US. It’s unclear why Iran is increasingly detaining dual nationals, but analysts and others have suggested hard-liners want concessions from the West in exchange for releasing them. Those recently detained in Iran include: • Homa Hoodfar, an Iranian-Canadian woman who is a retired professor at Montreal’s Concordia University;
• Baquer Namazi, a former Iranian and UN official in his 80s who is the father of Siamak; • Robin Shahini, an Iranian-American detained while visiting family who previously had made online comments criticizing Iran’s human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... record; • Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman held in Iran for months over accusations she planned the "soft toppling" of the government while visiting relatives with her young daughter; and • Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident from Leb who has done work for the American government . Still missing is former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission. | |||
Posted by:trailing wife |
#1 pallette of Swiss Francs, anyone? |
Posted by: Bov Flimbers 2016-08-17 02:15 |