An Iranian nuclear scientist detained since 2010 has been executed, his family has told the BBC.
Advertisement
Amiri disappeared briefly while on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and resurfaced in Washington some time later.
Shahram Amiri’s mother said the body of her son had been returned to the family with rope marks around his neck, indicating he had been hanged.
Amiri, said to be in his 30s, went missing in 2009, surprisingly surfacing in the USA a year later.
USA officials at the time said the Iranian scientist had defected by choice and provided “useful information” to the United States, the BBC reported. He reappeared in the U.S. a year later saying that the Central Intelligence Agency had kidnapped him and put him under “intense psychological pressure to reveal sensitive information”, the BBC reports. He returned to Tehran in 2010 and spent the remainder of his life in detention.
In July 2015 Iran signed a landmark nuclear deal with six world powers, in which it agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for lifting of sanctions.
Advertisement
No official statement has so far been made about the scientist’s death who had previously been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment after authorities charged him for revealing “sensitive information” about Iran’s nuclear reactors.
