The Iranian flag is displayed in front of the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran in Tehran on November 23, 2009. REUTERS / Morteza Nikoubazl
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DUBAI, July 6 (Reuters) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has arrested several foreigners, including the UK’s second-highest envoy to Tehran, for alleged acts of espionage, such as taking soil samples in restricted areas. state television reported Wednesday.
He did not explain when they were arrested or if they were still detained. Britain said the reports were “completely false”.
“These spies were taking ground samples in the central desert of Iran, where the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace missile exercises were being conducted,” state television said.
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Iranian state television showed what it said were footage of Giles Whitaker and his family in central Iran, where it appeared the British diplomat was taking samples on the ground. Television said it was near an area where a missile test was being conducted by the Guards.
“Whitaker was expelled from the city after apologizing (to the authorities),” the television report said.
However, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office said: “The reports of the arrest of a British diplomat in Iran are completely false.” Read more
Samuel Heath, spokesman for the United Kingdom in the United States, tweeted: “The (Whitaker) is no longer published in Iran!”
One of the detainees was identified by state television as the husband of Austria’s cultural attaché in Iran. Austrian officials were not immediately available to comment on the matter.
The television also showed a picture of a third foreigner, identified as Maciej Walczak, a university professor in Poland, whom he said he was visiting Iran as a tourist.
The television report released images that allegedly showed Walczak and three colleagues collecting soil samples in another area after visiting Iran on a science exchange program. He said his sample collection also coincided with a missile test in Kerman province in southern Iran.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have detained dozens of people of dual nationality and foreigners in recent years, mostly on espionage and security charges.
Rights groups have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to win concessions from other countries through arrests for security charges that could have been false. Tehran denies detaining people for political reasons.
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Written by Parisa Hafezi Editing by Sandra Maler
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