January 03-2014
The Islamic Republic has arrested a man it says spied for Britain and gave it information on what Iran was doing to evade sanctions.
The government said the man was arrested in Kerman, which was unusual. It wasn’t clear how much he could learn about state secrets in Kerman.
Court officials in Kerman said the man had confessed to holding 11 meetings inside and outside the country with British intelligence. They said he is currently on trial there.
Majlis Deputy Ali-Reza Manzari-Tavakkoli was quoted on a news website claiming that the man handed over details of sanctions-busting activities.
“We have received further information about the arrested individual that suggests he has been involved in passing secret data on Iran’s shipping industries and the insurance covers on our oil tankers to the British intelligence services,” he said. “The EU could use them for imposing more sanctions on our shipping sectors.
“The arrested individual has also confessed to passing economic intelligence about Iran’s use of other countries’ flags in transporting its oil abroad.”
Dadkhoda Salari, the public prosecutor in Kerman, said the alleged spy was a 50-year-old man, with a good university education and fluent English, who has never held a government job.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence agents had been monitoring his movements for the past two months, Salari said.
No one gave a nationality for the arrested spy, but the context indicated he was an Iranian national.
Hardliners opposed to the current thaw in British relations with Iran could use the spying revelations to try to disrupt progress toward restoration of full diplomatic ties.
