Shahram Amiri

Shahram Amiri ( Šahrâm Amiri; 8 November 1978 – 3 August 2016) was an Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared from Iran during 2009–2010 under disputed circumstances, and was executed by the Iranian government in August 2016.

A later report by ABC News described him as a "researcher at Malek Ashtar University of Defense Technology," which according to the European Union Council, was "linked" to Iran's Ministry of Defense and "set up a missiles training course in 2003."

The university's rector is a lieutenant general in the Iranian military who was "named in the UN Security Council's first round of sanctions on Iran in 2006 as one of seven 'persons involved in the nuclear program'."

MI6 was tasked with getting Amiri through Europe and into the British Isles, after which he was to be transferred to the US.

The New York Times said "sources" in Washington confirmed he was an American spy in Iran for several years, even aiding the "National Intelligence" report in 2007.

He then traveled to Saudi Arabia, where the CIA smuggled him out of the country.

The Obama administration said that his decision to return to Iran was an embarrassment, and it was concerned that it may undermine efforts to convince other Iranian scientists to work against the country.

One official said,

His safety depends on him sticking to that fairy tale about pressure and torture.

His challenge is to try to convince the Iranian security forces that he never cooperated with the United States.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated,

"We first have to see what has not happened in these two years and then we will determine if he's a hero or not. Iran must determine if his claims about being kidnapped were correct or not."

The Associated Press also reported American officials saying he has been paid $5 million for "significant original information."

According to the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Mottaki made a formal complaint to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about "the disappearances of Amiri and three other Iranians in recent years, some of whom they feared may have provided nuclear information to the West."

In the spring of 2009, he disappeared while apparently on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

On 27 September 2009, Tehran Bureau noted conflicting information regarding the date of his disappearance: the Tehran Times claimed that Amiri disappeared on 31 May, but Press TV claimed he disappeared in June.

In the same announcement by Tehran Bureau, it was claimed that Amiri conducted research on particle physics at the Malek-Ashtar University of Technology in Tehran and that this institution was controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp.

About a year after his disappearance, two videos appeared, each purporting to be declarations by Amiri, but with contradictory stories.

One showed him (or the person claiming to be him), stating that he had been kidnapped and tortured by Saudis and Americans; the other that he was in America of his own free will.

In 2009, the Iranian government accused the US government of kidnapping him.

Later, the Iranian state media reported that he was working as a double agent for Iranian intelligence.

After his return to Iran, American sources confirmed he had arrived in, or was taken to, the United States with the help of the CIA, but insisted he had not been taken or kept against his will.

ABC News and the newspaper Haaretz suggested Amiri "wanted to seek asylum abroad."

In October 2009, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki suggested the United States may have been involved in his disappearance.

On 7 October 2009, Iran's Press TV reported that Mottaki stated, "we have evidence of a U.S. role in disappearance of the Iranian national ... in Saudi Arabia. ... There is evidence to suggest the United States was involved" in Amiri's disappearance.

"We hold Saudi Arabia responsible and consider the US to be involved in his arrest."

In response, a United States Department of State spokesperson said only that "the case is not familiar to us".

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi stated a day or two earlier that "Amiri's fate is Saudi Arabia's responsibility."

Saudi Arabia "deplored" Tehran's charge that he was kidnapped while on pilgrimage.

On the other hand, in December 2009, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, denied that Amiri had any links with the AEOI or was ever employed by it.

The disappearance is thought by some to be connected to the revelation of a second uranium-enrichment facility near the city of Qom, as his disappearance came three months before the facility was revealed in the news, raising the possibility that Amiri "may have given the West information on it or other parts of the nuclear program."

In July 2010, Shahram Amiri reappeared in Washington, D.C. at the Iran interests section of the Embassy of Pakistan, seeking help to return to Tehran.

Shortly thereafter he spoke at a press conference in Tehran, telling journalists he had been kidnapped, tortured and bribed to cooperate with the CIA, but had refused.

According to a 2011 report by NPR news, he "was believed to be an agent-in-place for the CIA", who decided "he wanted out of Iran", but once in the US "got cold feet" and "made his way back to Iran".

Nevertheless, he was sentenced to ten years in prison after returning.

Despite this sentence, he was reported as executed in August 2016, and his body was returned to his family with rope marks around his neck.

Amiri was an award-winning atomic physicist who worked at the heavily guarded facility near Qom.

He was also a nuclear physics researcher at Malek-Ashtar University of Technology, a research institute closely associated with the Iranian military.

The Guardian reported that "he was an expert on radioactive isotopes for medical uses at Malek-Ashtar University of Technology (MUT), in Tehran" and reports in Iran said he "was also an employee of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation".

Press TV reported that he worked at Malek Ashtar University, but the Iranian government would not confirm that he was a nuclear scientist.