Iran to put nuclear “spies” on trial

Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Jul. 30 – Iran will put two employees of its nuclear establishment on trial behind closed doors on espionage charges on August 2 and August 20 in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, state-run newspapers reported on Saturday.

Judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimi-Rad announced in late June that the trial of the “nuclear spies” was postponed, “because one of the accused was ill and had to undergo surgery”.

Several hearings have already been held for the case of a third nuclear expert who faces similar charges, though no verdict has yet been reached.Iran’s Minister of Intelligence and Security Ali Younessi announced last year that the authorities had arrested dozens of spies, including several who had given away the Islamic Republic’s “nuclear secrets”.

"The Intelligence Ministry has arrested several spies who were carrying Iran’s nuclear information [out of the country]", Younessi, a Shiite cleric who heads Iran’s dreaded intelligence apparatus, told reporters.

Younessi linked the arrested nuclear experts with the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), who he said had passed the bulk of secrets on Iran’s nuclear program to “foreign powers”.

"The [MeK] had the main role in this and they have boasted before about spying against Iran in a press conference in America," Younessi said. "We have identified and arrested dozens of spies on various grounds."

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition coalition that includes the MeK, first disclosed the location of two sensitive nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in central Iran in a press conference in Washington, DC, in August 2002, a move that set off a major probe by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Shortly after Younessi’s comments, the NCRI in Paris denied that those arrested had anything to do with the organisation’s previous disclosures of Iran’s secret nuclear program.

The new trials come in the wake of fresh revelations by the council’s foreign affairs chief, Mohammad Mohaddessin. Mohaddessin told a seminar on Iran’s nuclear project in Paris on Thursday that Iran was secretly importing an extra-durable steel for use in its nuclear program.