Iranian scientist Cyrous Asgari, released after several years of detention in the United States, has returned to Iran.
The information is given on Wednesday by the Iranian agencies Tasnim, Isna and Mehr who publish on their respective Telegram account a photo of Cyrous Asgari wearing a surgical mask and hugging a veiled woman.
Iranian scientist Sirous Asgari arrived in # Iran's capital city Tehran on Wednesday morning after being released from jail in the US. pic.twitter.com/BDaBygm1qg
- Abas Aslani (@AbasAslani) June 3, 2020Researcher at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Cyrous Asgari, 59, seems to have been released outside the framework of a prisoner exchange, a rare occurrence between Iran and the United States, who no longer have any diplomatic relations since 1980. Iran detains at least five Americans while nearly twenty Iranians are imprisoned in the United States.
Continued detention
Accused in 2016 of theft of industrial secrets during an academic visit to Ohio, Cyrous Asgari was acquitted in November 2019. Despite this, he remained in prison in the United States, apparently for reasons related to immigration laws.
Last March, the Iranian researcher told the British daily The Guardian that the American immigration police kept him in a detention center in Louisiana without basic sanitary facilities and refused his return to Iran despite his acquittal.
The US State Department did not react to the release of Cyrous Asgari. But in a tweet Tuesday, the head of the US Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, assured that the case of the Iranian researcher was not linked to that of Michael White, a former American soldier detained in Iran and released in March. thanks to permission for "medical" reasons provided that he does not leave the country.
1/2) Asgari and White have never been related. We have been trying to deport Asghari since last year, being stalled every step of the way by the Iranian government. We wish Iran was so enthusiastic to get its illegal nationals back as they would have us all believe ... https://t.co/gKX4DzVhJB
- Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) June 2, 2020Coronavirus contracted in detention
According to Ken Cuccinelli, the United States has been trying to expel Cyrous Asgari since 2019 but has been "delayed at every step by the Iranian government". Ten other Iranians are currently being held by immigration police awaiting deportation from the United States, he added.
Iranian Foreign Affairs announced on Monday that Cyrous Asgari's file was closed and that he would return shortly. “Good news, an airplane carrying Dr. Cyrous Asgari has taken off from America. Congratulations to his wife and family, "Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote the following day on his Instagram account.
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Last month, Tehran reported that Cyrous Asgari had contracted the new coronavirus in detention. Iranian foreign spokesman Abbas Moussavi said on Tuesday that his contamination and partial stopping of flights due to the pandemic had delayed his departure from the United States.
Iran recently called for a comprehensive prisoner swap with the United States, which now detains 18 Iranians, according to a list compiled by AFP from official releases and press information. Several arrests or convictions of Iranians have taken place in the United States after President Donald Trump denounced in 2018 the international Iranian nuclear agreement of 2015 and reinstated heavy sanctions against Tehran.