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Iran blames CIA for its nuclear scientist's abduction | Iran has lodged a written complaint alleging that the CIA had abducted one of its nuclear scientists, Shahram Amiri amidst international mystery over the fate of the man.
According to The Telegraph, Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia during his pilgrimage
to the Muslim holy city of Medina. Since then a series of videos have apparently
shown Amiri make and retract claims he was drugged and flown to America against
his will. In March 2010, America's news channel ABC claimed that it had confirmation
he had defected and was helping US officials. This revelation has since been followed
by the appearance of three conflicting videotapes, each featuring a man resembling
Amiri. In the first, played on Iranian television, he said that he was kidnapped
in Medina, but briefly escaped. "When I became conscious, I found myself in a
plane on the way to the US, since I was abducted and brought to the US I was heavily
tortured and pressured by US intelligence," The Telegraph quoted him, as saying
in the videotape. In the second, posted on Youtube, he claimed that he is safe,
and is pursuing higher education in America, while in a third video, which was
made public in Iran last week, the first claims are repeated. The man claimed
that he managed to escape from US intelligence agents in Virginia. "I could be
re-arrested at any time by US agents, I am not free and I'm not allowed to contact
my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government
will be responsible. I ask Iranian officials and organisations that defend human
rights to raise pressure on the US government for my release and return to my
country," he added. Meanwhile, Tehran has said that it has evidence that he is
being held against his will in the United States, and had submitted it to the
Swiss embassy, which looks after American interests in the absence of diplomatic
relations. Earlier, the Iranian government had declared that the CIA with Saudi
connivance had kidnapped him. There was speculation in the West that his disappearance
was linked to the American discovery, made public in September, of a second secret
Iranian uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom. The paper stated that
the United States has dismissed all his claims but did not elaborate on what might
have gone wrong with him. Amiri was a nuclear researcher at Tehran's Malek Ashtar
University and also worked for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation. |
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