The head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission has confirmed the arrest and detention of a Iranian-American academic on suspicion of spying. Mohsen Mirdamadi, a reformist, said he had been informed by the intelligence ministry that Dariush Zahedi - who lectures at the University of California, Berkeley - was arrested several months ago while on a visit to Tehran. But Mirdamadi said that after an investigation, the intelligence ministry concluded the academic was not a spy and should be released — although this has been rejected by the hardline-run judiciary and Zahedi was now being held by a "parallel intelligence service."
| "We've decided he's a spy, so he's a spy, even if he is from Berkeley!" |
"After the intelligence ministry investigated the possibility of espionage activity, they found nothing on him and decided he should be freed," Mirdamadi told IRNA. "But the judiciary did not follow the advice of the ministry of intelligence, and they took him and gave him to one of the parallel intelligence apparatuses."
| "Kick him in the head a few times. He'll talk!" |
Mirdamadi warned that Zahedi may confess to spying "under pressure (and) after serving a long time in solitary confinement," and advised the judiciary that it could not risk another death in custody case.
| We may not be as polite as the Canucks. |
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