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Iran: Daughter of judiciary head accused of espionage

October 24, 2017 at 3:50 pm

Zahra Larijani (L), daughter of the head of the Iranian judiciary [Trouska.Sadeghi‏/Twitter]

The daughter of the head of the Iranian judiciary has been arrested accused of transmitting highly sensitive information about Iran’s acquisition of highly-enriched nuclear materials that are used to make nuclear warheads to British officials.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) detained Zahra Larijani in mid-October to conduct an investigation about her contacts with the British Embassy in Tehran and the British Foreign Intelligence Service.

“Zahra Larijani has bank accounts at Turkish bank Halkbank and ADB bank in Abu Dhabi and has transferred large amounts to these two banks,” said AMADE News, a site which is close to Iranian reformists.

It clarified that Larijani gave members of the British Foreign Intelligence Service detailed information about the companies established by Iran in Germany and Turkey, to acquire sensitive military and nuclear technologies.According to the website, General Wahid Haqqanian, who is the executive affairs assistant in the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the head of the intelligence service of the Revolutionary Guard, Hussein Taib, investigated Zahra Larijani. She admitted that her father was aware that she was connected with the British Foreign Ministry and carrying out an espionage task.

Read: UK, Germany reiterate commitment to Iran nuclear deal

According to the site, Larijani admitted that most of the meetings and encounters with security officers in the British embassy in the capital Tehran were in the city of Tabriz, in the north-east of the country.

She is also accused of spying for Britain and transferring details from Iran’s secret military nuclear weapons programme to officers of the British Foreign Intelligence Service.

Sources close to the supreme Iranian leader Ali Khamenei said that he intends to sack the head of the judiciary Sadiq Larijani if investigations prove he was aware of his daughter’s actions.

Larijani was appointed head of the judiciary on 15 August 2009 by Khamenei. He has previously been rocked by scandal after journalists reported he had been involved in corruption after he received funds from defendants being tried in court while their cases were being heard.