Iran's judiciary says jailed German freed, returned home

Last Update: 2020-02-18 00:00:00- Source: Baghdad Post

Iran has freed a German citizen sentenced to three years in jail, the Iranian judiciary said on Tuesday, a day after Tehran said a detained Iranian accused of violating U.S. sanctions had returned home from Germany. 


“On Monday, a German citizen returned home. He was arrested while ago and was sentenced to three years in jail for taking pictures from sensitive places,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in a televised weekly news conference. He did not give further details. 


Iran said on Monday that Ahmad Khalili, who was arrested in Germany on a U.S. request and subject to extradition to the United States, flew home on Sunday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had been in Germany to attend a security conference in Munich. 


“We insisted that first the Iranian citizen should return home...then the German citizen was allowed to leave Iran on Monday,” he said.