DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday detained a dual national suspected of “trying to organise unrest and sabotage”, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, amid heightened security to thwart planned protests a year after a young woman’s death in police custody.
The unidentified individual had “several smart phones … and an appreciable sum of dollars” and was arrested by the Guards’ intelligence arm in the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, the agency reported, citing its correspondent.
The latest arrest comes as Iran is set to release five Iranian-American detainees under a Qatar-mediated deal with the United States which will also include freeing five Iranians held by the United States and the unfreezing of $6 billion of Tehran’s funds that had been held in South Korea.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to win concessions from other countries through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up. Tehran, which does not recognise dual nationality, says such arrests are based on its criminal code and denies holding people for political reasons.
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Jason Neely and Daniel Wallis)