US officials in 2010 said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide “significant” information about Iran’s atomic program.
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Iran agreed to curb its nuclear power activities late past year in exchange for the lifting of sanctions that had seen its economy crumble.
It’s worth noting that on his return to Iran, Amiri claimed he was a low-ranking researcher in Iran’s nuclear program, and had no access to confidential information. “I had no classified information”.
However, Iranian authorities have remained largely silent on the subject since then.
Amiri’s disappearance came as Western nations worked to thwart Iran’s nuclear program under the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Amiri was found guilty and given what was thought to be a 10-year sentence, but it turns out Iran actually had sentenced him to death. The Associated Press could not immediately reach his family.
The US State Department declined to comment on the case when asked on Sunday. He was carrying out a prison sentence when he body, “with rope marks around his neck”, was reportedly returned to his family on Saturday.
The implementation of the deal has not gone smoothly for all parties.
According to the Washington Post, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) called Amiri’s execution “a desperate attempt by the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to intimidate and terrorize the regime’s nuclear experts and scientists and to prevent them from leaving the country”. That report said he had been extensively debriefed by the U.S. authorities.
Four nuclear scientists had been killed from 2010 to 2012, for which Iran blamed Israel and the United States.
On his return from the U.S., Amiri was greeted at airport by high-ranking government officials and was invited to TV talk shows where he explained how he bypassed a U.S. trap to get home.
Shahram Amiri was convicted of spying charges as he “provided the enemy with vital information of the country”, said Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary. USA officials said Amiri had been free to come and go as he pleased, and that he may have returned because of pressures on his family in Iran.
In July 2010, after his return to Iran, Amiri stated that he had been detained in the U.S. for more than a year after being “kidnapped” in Saudi Arabia by two Central Intelligence Agency agents speaking Persian.
But Amiri shared his side of the story amid speculation he was abducted at gunpoint by two Farsi-speaking Central Intelligence Agency agents in the Saudi city of Medina.
“I have not done any activity against my homeland”, he said.
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The 38-year-old Mr. Amiri vanished in 2009 during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam’s holiest sites.
