Tehran: Iran’s Foreign Ministry has called for the immediate release of its former ambassador to Jordan, Nosratollah Tajik, who is currently being held in the United Kingdom. In an interview on Tuesday, Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranian Expatriates’ Affairs Hassan Qashqavi urged the British government to free Tajik.Tajik, Iran’s former ambassador to Jordan, was entrapped in Britain and is now held captive under false excuses there.
Qashqavi also noted that Americans cannot extradite someone from Britain under UK’s human rights laws.
“In several meetings with Mr. Tajik and his lawyers, we found out that he is in appalling physical conditions,” he further explained.
The senior Iranian official added that a number of British doctors and psychiatrists have sent medical reports on Tajik’s critical health condition to Britain’s Home Office.
According to Qashqavi, all the reports verified that the former Iranian envoy is suffering from different diseases and that his well-being is badly undermined.
The Iranian official went on to say that Tajik’s mental health was also in danger as he had been under house arrest in Britain for nearly five years.
Tajik was arrested in the UK in 2006. He was accused of involvement in nuclear deals in violation of US sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The United States is pressuring British officials for Tajik’s extradition.
Turning to the case of Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan, an Iranian woman held in the US for about three years, Qashqavi said her immediate family would soon visit her.
Mir-Qolikhan was arrested in the US in December 2007. Her ex-husband, Mahmoud Seif, had allegedly tried to export night-vision goggles to Iran from Austria.
She was sentenced to five years in prison by a Florida federal court in his absence.
Mir-Qolikhan said last November that she is kept under horrible conditions and is subject to both physical and mental torture.
She added that her conditions had grown much worse after Iran released American national Sarah Shourd, who is charged with illegally entering Iran and espionage, on bail.
Mir-Qolikhan also pointed out that US media blackout regarding her case heightened after the release of Shourd.
