American held in Iran faces 'private complaint': prosecutor
An American held in Iran faces a complaint filed against him
while authorities probe possible security charges against the ex-Marine, an
Iranian prosecutor was quoted on Friday as saying according to Reuters, in a
case that risks further worsening ties with Washington.
“There is a private complaint against him,” the
semi-official news agency Mehr quoted Gholamali Sadeqi, prosecutor in the
northeastern city of Mashhad as saying when asked about the detention of
Michael White.
Sadeqi did not give details of the complaint. In the past,
“private complaints” filed by the Revolutionary Guards or other security bodies
have led to arrests of activists and closure of newspapers.
Asked whether White faced security-linked accusations,
Sadeqi said, “This is being investigated... This case is in the process of
investigations and the results will be announced when this is completed.”
Iran confirmed White’s arrest earlier this month on
unspecified charges after the New York Times reported that White, a 46-year-old
US Navy veteran, was arrested in July while visiting northeastern to meet his
Iranian girlfriend.
The case is likely to further worsen relations with the
United States. President Donald Trump withdrew from an international agreement
Iran’s nuclear program and re-imposed sanctions last year that hit the Iranian
economy hard.
Several Americans have been detained in Iran in recent years
and Trump warned in 2017 that Tehran would face “new and serious consequences”
unless all unjustly held US citizens were freed.
White’s mother told the New York Times that her son, a
California resident, suffers acute asthma and had undergone chemotherapy and
radiation treatment for a neck tumor.