Iranians detained in Kenya over ‘third party’ meddling

NAIROBI, Dec. 03 (MNA) – Iranian ambassador to Nairobi said the two Iranian lawyers were detained in Kenya over the intervention of a ‘third party’ bearing ill will toward Iran-Kenya’s good relations. Hadi Farajvand, Iran’s Ambassador to Kenya, explained the case of the two Iranian nationals arrested in Kenta as follows: “On Nov. 29, 2016, two Iranian lawyers and university professors named Abdolhossein Safaei and Seyyed Nasrollah Ebrahimi, who had travelled to Nairobi on behalf of the families of two Iranians prisoners in Kenya in order to follow up on their cases and give legal advice to them, were stopped by security forces of a third party upon their return from the prison over accusation of recording footage, and were handed over to the Kenyan police.” He went on to add, “the two were released as soon as they answered the questions by the police and the misunderstanding was cleared, but a 'certain third party' probed into the case which led to the arrest of these two attorneys by the Kenyan police on Thursday.” “Unfortunately, the incident was reported in various media with untrue claims backed by the third party, and they went so far as to falsely claim that the two lawyers who have traveled several times to Kenya with their own ordinary passports, were Iranian diplomats,” he said. “The Iranian Embassy in Nairobi, while voicing its strongest regret over the release of such baseless news and the media’s misuse of it, stresses that such moves have been made with an aim to harm the developing and friendly ties between Iran and Kenya,” Farajvand said. “The Embassy also expects the Kenyan government to take effective measures to inform the public opinion and prevent the instrumental abuse of such incidents.” He further hoped that given the known identities of the two lawyers, Kenyan government and Judiciary would make serious efforts toward the immediate release of the two Iranian nationals.