2023-06-02 13:30:00
© via REUTERS/WANA NEWS AGENCY
A Dane was also released in the course of the prisoner exchange. Those released are already on their way to Austria, and a third Austrian is said to be in prison.
Two Austrian citizens have been released following years of imprisonment in Iran. As announced by the Federal Chancellery and the Foreign Ministry on Friday Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb following years of imprisonment now on the way back to Austria. Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) spoke of a “huge diplomatic success”.
foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) wrote in a broadcast: “This is a very moving day for all of us.” The two Austrian-Iranian dual citizens (Iranians cannot give up their citizenship) Ghaderi and Mossaheb had been sentenced to years in prison for alleged espionage. The Viennese IT expert Ghaderi had therefore been in prison in Tehran since 2016.
Mossaheb, Secretary General of the Austro-Iranian Society, was arrested during a visit to Tehran in early 2019. The two had spent 2,709 and 1,586 days in Iranian detention, according to the Foreign Ministry.
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In exchange for Assadi
Just a few days ago, a Belgian aid worker who, like most Europeans, was accused of “espionage”, was traded in exchange for the convicted terrorist Assadollah Assad released. The Iranian and former diplomat was convicted of an attempted attack on an Iranian opposition figure in France. He served his sentence in Belgium.
Now it has become known: The release of the two Austrian Ghaderi and Mossaheb and that of a Dane are said to be part of the exchange deal once morest Assadi. It is suspected that the arrest of the two Austrians was linked to Assadi’s release, because he worked as a diplomat in Vienna and there was speculation in Iran that he might be exchanged for Austrian hostages.
➤ Read more: Terrorist once morest EU citizens: The mullahs’ hostage deals
Third Austria still in custody
A third Austrian citizen is currently still in prison in Iran. His appeal process is currently ongoing in Iran. The Foreign Ministry will continue to “leave no stone unturned to enforce the release of the third Austrian citizen”.
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