Spox: Iranian prisoner in Germany released

Tehran, Feb 17, IRNA – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that Iranian prisoner Ahmad Khalili kept in Germany on the pretext of violation of US sanctions was released and came back home with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The freedom was the outcome of intensive diplomatic talks and with effective cooperation of Iran's judiciary. He had been under arrest on the pretext of breaching US illegal sanctions and upon the request of the United States Attorney General. He noted that Khalili was about to be extradited to US. Earlier, in the wake of efforts made by Iranian Foreign Ministry and security and judiciary bodies, Iranian Professor Masoud Soleimani was released in a diplomatic procedure and in cooperation with the Switzerland Government. Soleimani was imprisoned falsely for the alleged circumvention of US sanctions for one year. Massoud Soleimani, a stem cell researcher and associate professor at Tarbiat Modares University, which is among 1% top scientists in the world with regard to scientific citations in prestigious scientific journals, departed for the US on a study agenda on October 7, 2018. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish