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foreign ministry calls for freedom of iranian national from us jail
tehran (fna)- iranian foreign ministry spokesman ramin mehman-parast on tuesday said that tehran will boost its diplomatic efforts to secure freedom of an iranian national from us jail.
addressing reporters on his weekly press conference here in tehran, mehman-parast has strongly condemned the us court's decision to sentence amir hossein ardebili to five years in prison, describing the move as "illegal and unacceptable."
"the information we have received about mr. ardabili shows that he is going to be condemned to time in prison in an illegal manner," he said.
"we will definitely disagree with that. this is illegal and we are trying our best to ensure that the court revokes this illegitimate verdict," the spokesman added.
mehman-parast's comments came after a us district court in wilmington, delaware, handed out a five-year term to ardebili based on prosecutor's claim that he had "secretly pleaded guilty" to arms smuggling and weapons export charges.
ardebili was abducted in the republic of georgia in october 2007 and handed over to the us government in january 2008.
iran, however, has condemned the whole ordeal arguing that based on international law officials in tbilisi were obliged to extradite the iranian national to the islamic republic, instead of giving him up to us agents.
according to claims made by us prosecutors, ardabili had to face trial for seeking to acquire military equipment, such as aircraft parts and night vision devices, for iran.
this is while the purchase of parts for f-4 fighter planes through a mediator is not defined as a criminal offense in international law.
additionally, international regulations do not allow the us government to abduct iranian nationals from other countries based on these charges.
ardabili is one of 11 iranian nationals who have been kidnapped under suspicious circumstances outside of iran's borders.
alireza asgari, shahram amiri, and iran's former ambassador to jordon nasrollah tajik are among the other victims.
