Anonymous ID: 80427a Aug. 28, 2018, 9:04 a.m. No.2766577   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>6602

>>2766234

Iranian President Hassan Rohani’s younger brother, Hossein Fereidoun, has been arrested on unspecified financial crimes charges and an American citizen has been sentenced to a decade behind bars for "infiltrating" the country.

 

In announcing both cases during a regular press briefing with local journalists on July 16, judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei said Fereidoun, a senior diplomat who took part in the talks that led to a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, was taken into custody over allegations of financial impropriety and is eligible for bail.

 

"Multiple investigations have been conducted regarding this person, also other people have been investigated, some of whom are in jail," spokesman Ejei said at the news conference, which was broadcast live on television.

 

"Yesterday, bail was issued for him but because he failed to secure it he was referred to prison," Ejei added. He said Fereidoun would be released "once he provides the bail."

 

The United States immediately called upon Iran to release any U.S. citizens or other foreigners being held on "fabricated" charges.

 

"We call for the immediate release of all U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Iran so they can return to their families," the AFP news agency quoted a State Department official as saying without making specific reference to a person.

 

The unproven charges were a focal point of the May presidential election, with the president's hard-line challengers demanding a judicial investigation of the accusations against Fereidoun, who is also a top aide to President Rohani, a relative moderate.

 

Rohani, who changed his surname from Fereidoun years ago, trounced his nearest opponent to secure a second term in office in the first round of voting in the election.

 

Fereidoun has long been accused by Iran’s hard-liners of financial crimes and corruption. He has reportedly been linked to officials at the center of a scandal involving inflated salaries for managers of a state insurance company.

 

In January, a group of conservative Iranian parliamentarians called for Fereidoun to be put on trial for economic crimes, a move critics described as politically motivated.

 

Many Iranian hard-liners, whose influence runs deep within the judiciary, were upset with the nuclear deal Fereidoun helped strike. They felt it gave away too much for too little in exchange.

 

The U.S. citizen whose sentence was also announced on July 16, was not named but Ejei described the person as a dual citizen of the United States and another foreign country.

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"It was verified and determined that he was gathering [information] and was involved in infiltration," Ejei said.

 

Ejei did not elaborate on the specific charges that led to the conviction, which he said could be appealed. He also did not say when the verdict was rendered.

 

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, BBC, and tasnimnews.com

Anonymous ID: 80427a Aug. 28, 2018, 9:09 a.m. No.2766642   🗄️.is đź”—kun

>>2766234

More Chinese spying…from IRAN!

 

Iran Sentences U.S. Graduate Student to 10 Years on Spying Charges

By Rick Gladstone

July 16, 2017

 

An American student from Princeton University was arrested in Iran and has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges he was spying for the United States, an Iranian judiciary official said on Sunday, an action bound to aggravate relations between the two countries.

 

The arrest and sentencing of the American, Xiyue Wang, a graduate student in history, was announced months after he had vanished in Iran, where he was doing research for a doctoral thesis. There had been rumors of his arrest, but the announcement on Sunday from Iran was the first official confirmation.

 

A spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, said at a weekly news conference that one of “America’s infiltrators” had been prosecuted, but he did not identify Mr. Wang by name or nationality. The judiciary’s Mizan News Agency provided his name and his age, 37, saying he had “spider connections” with American and British intelligence agencies.

 

Mizan also said Mr. Wang, whom it described as fluent in Persian, had digitally archived 4,500 pages of Iranian documents and had done “super confidential research for the U.S. Department of State, Harvard Kennedy School and British Institute of Persian Studies.”