January 31-2014
The Islamic Republic has assailed the United States for arresting Iranian-Americans, saying they are not guilty of anything but are just being jailed as part of a propagandas campaign to try to make the Islamic Republic look bad.
The criticism was aired by Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi, who used to be the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
Qashqavi now handles consular affairs and thus deals with the cases of Iranians arrested abroad,
According to PressTV, he said, “All the hype and all the traps set up for Iranian citizens abroad are merely propaganda and media speculation; no offense has been committed by Iranian citizens.”
He specifically cited the recent arrest of Mozaffar Khazaee, an engineer who had worked for Pratt & Whitney, a major us defense contractor. Khazaee is accused of stealing “thousands” of pages of engineering plans for the new F-35 stealth combat jet and trying to ship them to Iran labeled as household goods.
“There have been similar cases in other countries before, and the Iranian citizens have returned to the country after acquittal,” Qashqavi said.
But far more have been convicted than acquitted. And most have been convicted of common crimes, especially drug smuggling, rather than smuggling military articles.
The news report had Qashqavi decreeing blanket innocence for everyone arrested in the United States, which would include Nima Nassiri, charged last month in Michigan with second-degree murder for allegedly beating his new wife, Sanaz Nezami, to death.