FM Spokesman Dismisses New Charges Over Arbabsiar Detention

Tehran, Oct 21, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast dismissed on Saturday US Attorney General's new charges over Mansour Arbabsiar detention. In a reaction to some western media reports quoting Arbabsiar as making accusations against some Iranian organizations, he said such a ridiculous scenario has been planned while even some US officials and political analysts have described it as false and a Hollywood-like scenario. Denying charges raised against some Iranian organs, Mehmanparast said the new charges are based on confessions Arbabsiar has made under mental and physical pressures during solitary confinement. Mehmanparast condemned the repeated violation of international conventions and laws by the US administration and lashed out at the US for its efforts to misuse judicia body by arranging such cheap and baseless scenarios. A Federal District Court in Manhattan has accused Arbabsiar an Iranian-American used-car salesman from Texas of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. He has been accused of conspiring to hire assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million to kill the ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir. At the time the charges were announced, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the plot had been “directed and approved by elements of the Iranian government specifically senior members of the Quds Force". Based on some western media reports, Arbabsiar told Judge John F. Keenan in court that he took responsibility “for his actions.”/end