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Iranian nuclear scientist executed for spying for United States: judiciary

Iranian authorities have confirmed the execution of nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who was accused of treason and divulging sensitive information about the country’s nuclear program to USA intelligence agencies.

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Last week, Iran executed a nuclear scientist who arrived in America six years ago before demanding to be sent home. He was held in a secret detention center and tried as a spy.

USA officials in 2010 said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide “significant” information about Iran’s atomic program, they even promised him to remain in the United States for his safety but Amiri later fled the USA without the money.

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since 1980. Though it has yet to be confirmed, most believe Clinton’s server had been hacked, leading the Iranian government to discover the truth of Amiri’s work in the US and prompted his execution.

Shahram Amiri had earlier been sentenced to death by a lower court, judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehi told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

“Amiri had access to confidential military secrets and was connected to our number-one enemy, the Great Satan”, Mohseni-Ejei said.

This does not explain why Amiri’s detention and trial were shrouded in secrecy, nor does it say what knowledge Amiri had allegedly passed on to the US.

The execution of Amiri takes place one year after the United States and five world powers reached a nuclear agreement with Iran. He went missing from Saudi Arabia in 2009 while on a pilgrimage to Mecca and suddenly reappeared in the U.S. six months later.

“You mentioned the Iranian scientist that was recently executed”.

Fast forward to this weekend when Tehran announced Amiri had been executed. The U.S. denied that he had been kidnapped. -Israeli creation, also disrupted thousands of centrifuges at a uranium enrichment facility in Iran at the same time. Later, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated between 2010 and 2012, and Iran blamed the slayings on Israel and the West. In one of the videos, Amiri claimed the Central Intelligence Agency kidnapped him during his pilgrimage and he was kept in Tucson, AZ where they tortured him and applied psychological pressure. His wife and son remained behind in Iran. He said in the video he wanted to return to Iran. But soon, another clip contradicted that, and he appeared at the Pakistani Embassy. Then he mysteriously disappeared.

“I’m not going to comment on what he may or may not have done for the United States government, but in the emails that were on Hillary Clinton’s private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman”, Cotton said during an interview on CBS News’ Face The Nation Sunday morning.

“He is free to go”, she said at the time. He returned to Iran in 2010 and received a hero’s welcome before being arrested.

After seeking shelter at the Iranian affairs section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C., Mr. Amiri returned to Iran that month and was welcomed by his family and Iranian officials.

“I was under the harshest mental and physical torture”, he said.

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Tom Cotton asserted that Amiri was discussed in e-mails sent and received by Hillary Clinton, which he argued may have led directly to Amiri’s execution. A year later, he reappeared in a series of contradictory online videos filmed in the U.S.

Amiri was given a hero’s welcome when he arrived at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran in 2010 and was portrayed as somone who had fled US captivity. Credit Raheb Homavandi  Reuters