Iran holds UK academic as dual-national arrests persist
IRAN: A British-Iranian academic from Imperial College London has been arrested in Iran, the latest of dozens of dual nationals taken into custody by Tehran since the 2015 nuclear deal.
Abbas Edalat, a professor of computer science and mathematics, was in Iran for an academic workshop when he was arrested on April 15 by the Revolutionary Guard, according to the Centre for Human Rights in Iran.
‘‘Iran’s continued arbitrary arrests of dual nationals without transparency and lack of due process is extremely concerning,’’ said Hadi Ghaemi, the centre’s executive director.
Iran has arrested at least 30 dual nationals since the nuclear agreement, according to human rights groups.
At least four Britons are being held, including Edalat, who strenuously maintains his innocence.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 on charges she denies of plotting to topple the Iranian government.
Kamal Foroughi, a BritishIranian businessman, was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to eight years in prison on espionage charges.
Earlier this year Iran also arrested Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American businessman who is believed to hold a British passport, during a clampdown on environmentalists and academics.
The arrest of Edalat comes at a critical moment for the future of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.
United States President Donald Trump must decide by May 12 whether he will reimpose US sanctions on Tehran, a move that could effectively send the US crashing out of the deal.
According to analysts, Iran’s practice of arresting dual nationals is motivated partly by a desire to use the detainees as leverage in negotiations with Western countries. – Telegraph Group