Iran arrests dual national on security-related charges
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has detained an Iranian with citizenship in another country over allegations the person had links to British intelligence services, a prosecutor said Tuesday, the latest dual national arrested in the country.
The circumstances surrounding this most-recent detention were unclear, but they come as hard-liners in Iran’s security forces increasingly target those with foreign ties in the wake of the country’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Speaking to journalists, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi described the individual arrested as being “active in the economic field, related to Iran,” the official IRNA news agency reported. Dolatabadi didn’t elaborate, saying only that the arrest took place last week. He also did not identify the individual’s second nationality.
Iranian hard-liners have criticized a planned meeting in September called “Iran Connect 2016,” sponsored in part by Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce. A flier for the event notes it is “strictly prohibited to Iranian individuals and entities that are sanctioned by the U.K. government and/or the EU.”