TEHRAN — Iran has indicted a member of its nuclear negotiating team who was arrested last year on suspicion of spying, and detained an Iranian American on charges of defrauding people under the guise of helping them emigrate, the Iranian judiciary said on Sunday.
Authorities have formally charged a dual national who had been a member of the negotiating team that reached a landmark nuclear deal with world powers before being arrested last year, said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, quoted by the judiciary’s website, Mizan.
Announcing the arrest in August, Mohseni Ejei said the unidentified individual was a “spy who had infiltrated the nuclear team.”
Mohseni Ejei gave no further details about the defendant, but some news reports said he is Iranian Canadian. Ejei also told reporters that an unnamed Iranian American was arrested for defrauding people seeking U.S. residence of $2.6 million, Mizan reported.
The arrests of dual nationals have followed warnings about “Western infiltration”, as Iran’s potential opening up to the West after the 2015 nuclear deal alarmed Iranian hardliners. Iran does not recognize dual nationality, which prevents relevant Western embassies from seeing individuals who have been detained.
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