State television reported that the Revolutionary Guards arrested several foreigners, including Britain’s second-highest-ranking envoy to Tehran, for alleged espionage activities such as taking soil samples in restricted areas. However, he did not say whether those arrested were still in custody.
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, arrested foreign diplomats, including Britain’s deputy ambassador, on charges of “espionage”, Iran’s Fars and Tasnim news agencies and state television reported on Wednesday. According to information, the British diplomat is to be expelled from the country.
“The intelligence service of the Revolutionary Guards identified and arrested diplomats of foreign embassies who were spying on Iran,” Fars reported, adding that one of them, a Briton, was subsequently expelled from the country. But state television reported that the British diplomat had been expelled “from the area” where they were arrested in central Iran.
State television reported that the Revolutionary Guards arrested several foreigners, including Britain’s second-highest-ranking envoy to Tehran, for alleged espionage activities such as taking soil samples in restricted areas. However, he did not say whether those arrested were still in custody.
“These spies were taking soil samples in Iran’s central desert where missile exercises by the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace unit were conducted,” Iranian television reported.
The television report showed footage of Giles Whittaker and his family in central Iran, where the British diplomat appeared to be taking soil samples without permission, and said the diplomat was near a missile test site.
“Whittaker was kicked out (of the area) after apologizing,” the TV station reported.
One of those arrested was identified by state television as the husband of Austria’s cultural ambassador to Iran. The TV also showed a photo of a third foreigner, whom it said was Maciej Walczak, a university professor in Poland and visiting Iran as a tourist.
The TV report also showed footage allegedly showing Valczak and three colleagues collecting soil samples in another area after visiting Iran on a science exchange program. It said the collection of their samples coincided with a missile test in the southern Iranian province of Kerman.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.
Rights groups have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to extract concessions from other countries through arrests on security-related charges that could have been fabricated. Tehran denies arresting people for political reasons.
RES-EMP
View the news feed and get the latest news.
