Jailed Scientist to Return to Iran Within Days
TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Tehran said Monday that scientist Sirous Asgari, one of more than a dozen Iranians behind bars in the United States, is set to return to the Islamic Republic within days.
Asgari was accused by a U.S. court in 2016 of stealing trade secrets while on an academic visit to Ohio.
But the 59-year-old scientist from Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology was acquitted in November. Despite the acquittal, U.S. authorities have refused to release the scientist, raising questions about their intentions.
The academic told British newspaper The Guardian in March that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was keeping him in a detention center in Louisiana without basic sanitation and refusing to let him return to Iran despite his exoneration.
"Dr. Sirous Asgari’s case has been closed in America and he will probably return to the country in the next two or three days,” said Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi. "That is, if no issues or obstacles come up,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said last month that Asgari had contracted the novel coronavirus while in U.S. custody.
If he returns to Iran, the scientist would become one of the
few detainees held by either side not to have been released in a prisoner exchange.
Both Iran and the United States hold a number of each other’s nationals and they have recently called for them to be released amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iran is battling one of the Middle East’s deadliest outbreaks of the virus, while the U.S. has reported the highest total number of deaths worldwide from the disease.
Tensions between the two countries escalated in 2018, after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a landmark nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran’s economy.
Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said last month that Tehran had offered "some time ago” to exchange all Iranian and U.S. prisoners but was waiting for a response from the United States.
The Islamic Republic in December freed Xiyue Wang, held for espionage, in exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps.
Iran has also released more than 100,000 inmates, including 1,000 foreigners, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asgari was accused by a U.S. court in 2016 of stealing trade secrets while on an academic visit to Ohio.
But the 59-year-old scientist from Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology was acquitted in November. Despite the acquittal, U.S. authorities have refused to release the scientist, raising questions about their intentions.
The academic told British newspaper The Guardian in March that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was keeping him in a detention center in Louisiana without basic sanitation and refusing to let him return to Iran despite his exoneration.
"Dr. Sirous Asgari’s case has been closed in America and he will probably return to the country in the next two or three days,” said Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi. "That is, if no issues or obstacles come up,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said last month that Asgari had contracted the novel coronavirus while in U.S. custody.
If he returns to Iran, the scientist would become one of the
few detainees held by either side not to have been released in a prisoner exchange.
Both Iran and the United States hold a number of each other’s nationals and they have recently called for them to be released amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iran is battling one of the Middle East’s deadliest outbreaks of the virus, while the U.S. has reported the highest total number of deaths worldwide from the disease.
Tensions between the two countries escalated in 2018, after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a landmark nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran’s economy.
Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said last month that Tehran had offered "some time ago” to exchange all Iranian and U.S. prisoners but was waiting for a response from the United States.
The Islamic Republic in December freed Xiyue Wang, held for espionage, in exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps.
Iran has also released more than 100,000 inmates, including 1,000 foreigners, during the COVID-19 pandemic.