Detainees confess to spying: Iran

Iran Sunday said several US-Iranians detained on accusations linked to spying “have confessed” as it warned the united states not to interfere in their cases.

“Regarding the espionage of some Iranians, we have had good results. They have confessed to many issues,” the centrist ham Mihan newspaper quoted the Tehran deputy prosecutor for security affairs, Hassan Hadad, as saying.

Iran has said it is holding Iranian-American academics Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh on charges of harming national security, in cases that several officials have linked to alleged US efforts to topple the clerical authorities.

Washington and hardline Iranian media have said that a third dual national, California-based businessman Ali Shakeri, has also been arrested, although this has yet to be confirmed by the authorities.

A fourth US-Iranian, journalist Parnaz Azima, faces the same charges and has had her passport confiscated even though she remains at liberty.

Hadad did not specify which of the accused had confessed or what they had revealed. But his remarks are the first time an official has spoken of confessions in cases that have further intensified strains with Washington.

He emphasised that “all of those arrested” have Iranian citizenship, a reference to Iran`s longstanding rejection of dual nationality.

Iran`s Foreign Ministry spokesman today also told the United States to stop interfering in the cases after president George W Bush called for their immediate release.

“The American comments are a very evident example of interfering in our domestic affairs and they should stop these actions,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

Bureau Report

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