Millet Press

August 7, 2016





An Iranian Kurdish nuclear scientist, who had reportedly sought asylum in the USA, was executed in Iran last Wednesday, reports from local sources said on Saturday.



Shahram Amiri was a Kurdish nuclear researcher at Malek Ashtar University of Technology in Tehran and he was working for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.



His family said he was executed on Wednesday, August 3rd, while they were allowed to see him in prison the day before.



Amiri went missing while on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and he later appeared in the USA, claiming that he had been kidnapped by US and Saudi intelligence agents and forced under intense pressure to divulge some sensitive information about the Iranian nuclear program.



He returned to Iran in 2010, apparently because Iran was harassing and torturing his family to force him to return, according to reports.



Although Amiri was welcomed back to Iran warmly by the authorities, he was arrested shortly afterwards, and it later became clear that he had been given a long prison sentence until he was executed last Wednesday.



Last week Iran executed more than 20 Kurds which brought condemnation from UN, local and international humans rights organizations.