Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, attends a news conference as he arrives at the Imam Khomeini airport just outside Tehran, Iran, after returning from the United States on July 20, 2010.
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Iran, the United States and five other world powers reached a landmark deal past year, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in such a way as to ensure it can not develop nuclear weapons in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions.
Shahram Amiri was given a hero’s welcome in 2010 when he returned to Tehran – after disappearing during a Saudi pilgrimage in 2009 before resurfacing in the United States. While Amiri told reporters that he was held against his will by both the Saudis and the Americans, U.S. officials said he was receiving millions of dollars for information he provided about Iran’s nuclear program. Around a year later, he started appearing on Iranian television and YouTube videos claiming that he had been kidnapped by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Ejehi did not explain why authorities never announced Mr. Amiri’s conviction, though he said Mr. Amiri had access to lawyers. Later, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated between 2010 and 2012, and Iran blamed the slayings on Israel and the West.
In July 2010, Shahram Amiri went to the Iran interests section of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington DC asking for help. A source reportedly said of Amiri’s return to Iran, “He provided useful information to the United States”. Ejehi said Amiri’s family mistakenly believed he received a 10-year prison sentence.
Amiri, who was born in 1977, was forced to return to Iran due to threats on his family by the authorities of the countries.
He denied having any classified information, saying: “I’m not involved in any confidential jobs”.
Iran complained in July 2010 that Mr. Amiri was being held against his will. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said he hadn’t been forced to come to the US and was free to go. “He said he had been “under the harshest mental and physical torture”, and that his captors had bribed him with $50 million not to return home”.
A deal past year between Iran and world powers to limit Tehran’s nuclear program cleared the way for the easing of some global sanctions, but it has been met by opposition from powerful hard-line groups in Iran, including the judiciary and the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps. Meanwhile, after Clinton’s email scandal was investigated, it was discovered she had talked about Amiri to other USA officials over the unsecured server.
“We have a diplomatic, “psychological” issue, not a legal one”.
Amiri’s execution marks the final dark chapter in a real-life spy drama that was the subject of much speculation.
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“Our person won’t be able to do anything anyway”.
