August 19, 2016
Iran has detained an Iranian with citizenship in another country for links to British intelligence, Tehran’s prosecutor said Tuesday, the eighth dual national known sitting in the country’s jail cells.
The alleged link to British intelligence suggested the arrested person might be British-Iranian, but the announcement omitted any mention of the person’s second nationality or gender.
The announcement comes just seven days after British Prime Minister Theresa May telephoned President Rohani to appeal for the release of imprisoned dual nationals. The arrest can, therefore, be seen as a political punch in the mouth to May. But many in Iran see it as a punch at Rohani, as part of an effort to anger the West and make it harder for Rohani to improve relations with the West.
“May’s telephone call proved the imprisoned dual nationals matter to the West,” said one analyst. “So, that has only encouraged the hardliners to grab more dual nationals.”
Speaking to journalists, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi described the individual arrested as linked to British intelligence and “active in the economic field related to Iran.” Dolatabadi didn’t elaborate, saying only that the arrest took place last week.
Dual nationals currently known to be detained in Iran are:
- Homa Hoodfar, an Iranian-Canadian woman who is a retired professor at Montreal’s Con-cordia University;
- Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman who has advocated for closer ties between the two countries and was arrested last October;
- Baquer Namazi, an Iranian-American and a former Iranian and UN official in his 80s who is the father of Siamak;
- Robin Shahini, an Iranian-American detained while visiting family and who previously had made online comments criticizing Iran’s human rights record;
- Kamal Foroughi, a 76-year-old British-Iranian arrested in 2011 and serving an eight-year term for espionage;
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 37-year-old British-Iranian woman held in Iran since April over accusations she planned the “soft toppling” of the government while visiting relatives with her young daughter; and
- Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident from Lebanon who has done work for the American government.
Still missing is former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007. He was last seen in the custody of Iranian police officers on Kish Island.