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Iran asks Interpol to arrest suspect of Natanz nuclear facility attack

April 19, 2021 at 12:25 pm

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspector at nuclear research centre of Natanz in Tehran on 20 January 2014 [KAZEM GHANE/IRNA/AFP/Getty Images]

Iran has asked Interpol to arrest a man suspected of carrying out the attack on its Natanz nuclear facility in the name of Israel earlier this month, according to reports.

Iranian state television yesterday published a photograph of a 43-year-old man named Reza Karimi, stating that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence had confirmed his role in the attacks that sabotaged the nuclear facility.

According to the reports, Karimi had “fled the country before the incident” to an unidentified location, and claimed that “legal procedures to arrest and return him to the country are currently underway.”

The conservative Kayhan newspaper added that “after his identity was established, necessary measures were taken through Interpol to arrest and return [him].”

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No further details on the suspect have been released and there is much left unknown about the case, such as who Karimi was and how he had access to the Natanz facility.

The television report alluded to an apparent Interpol red notice seeking the suspect’s arrest, but conflicting reports have pointed out that no such notice was seen to be immediately accessible on Interpol’s public database.

Interpol has also reportedly said that it could not confirm that a red notice was issued for Karimi.

Iran’s request to Interpol makes it its second such appeal to the international policing organisation this year, the first being in January when it sought arrest warrants following the assassination of its nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

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