Robert Macaire, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Iran has left the country after he was arrested and detained last week for attending a vigil for victims of Ukrainian airliner shootdown:

UK ambassador to Iran has flown back to Britain. UK says it’s a planned working visit. He was detained briefly on Saturday evening after attending a vigil in Tehran for the victims of the Ukrainian airline crash. — AssedBaig (@AssedBaig) January 15, 2020

Was it because an Iranian cleric wanted him “chopped into pieces”?

Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda: U.K. Ambassador Should Be Chopped into Pieces; Hundreds of Thousands of U.S. Soldiers Were Killed in Our Missile Attack; Iranians Who Refused to Step on Flags of Israel, U.S. Should Be Court-Martialed, Executed pic.twitter.com/38bp0ED6Gw — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 15, 2020

The UK is saying it’s for a “long planned working visit,” which we don’t buy for a second:

FCO sources say UK ambassador to Iran Rob Macaire @HMATehran has flown back to UK for long planned working visit. They say it’s a routine trip & unconnected to his arrest at a vigil for Flight 752 dead & expulsion calls from judiciary. Yesterday his effigy was burned in Tehran. — James Landale (@BBCJLandale) January 15, 2020

Iran’s government really wasn’t happy with him:

Yesterday the judiciary spokesman said it was unacceptable to see the British ambassador in tehran attend an illegal gathering take photos and video, have an instigator role — AssedBaig (@AssedBaig) January 15, 2020

He said in international law such a person is declared “persona non grata” and the hosting country can ask him to leave. He said he was an unacceptable person and called for him to be sacked. — AssedBaig (@AssedBaig) January 15, 2020

They also burned an effigy of him on Tuesday:

There was also a protest yesterday where an effigy of the U.K. ambassador Robert Maccaire was burned. — AssedBaig (@AssedBaig) January 15, 2020

They seem nice:

Iran: Effigy of British Ambassador to #Iran being burned today in Tehran pic.twitter.com/8gt5d9ztgH — Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) January 14, 2020

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