Activists condemn Iran ‘hostage taking’ of foreigners
- Activists say at least a dozen Westerners including Americans, British and Germans citizens are being held in Iran
- Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through arrests of foreigners
Iran is engaged in a brazen policy of hostage taking of foreigners to extract concessions from the West, activists say, with further Western nationals arrested and others even facing execution.
Campaigners accuse Iran of a systematic policy of hostage taking over four decades from the earliest period of the Islamic republic after the ousting of the shah, starting with the 1979-1981 siege at the US embassy in Tehran.
France said Thursday that two of its citizens had been detained in Iran, with sources identifying them as a French teachers’ union official and the unionist’s spouse, and the foreign ministry denouncing a “baseless arrest”.
Meanwhile, Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali is at risk of an execution that media reports say is due to be carried out by May 21, over his 2017 conviction on spying charges that are vehemently denied by his family.
Iran denies any such policy of hostage taking and insists all foreigners are tried according to due legal process. However it has repeatedly shown a willingness for prisoner exchanges and taken part in swaps in the past.
“It is diplomacy by coercion: not settling international disputes simply by classic negotiation between states,” said a Western specialist on the issue, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity.
