BBC NEWS | Middle East | US denies Iranian torture claim

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US denies Iranian torture claim

US denies Iranian torture claim
The US has denied claims made by an Iranian diplomat abducted in Iraq that he was tortured in captivity by people who included CIA agents.

A US spokesman said Jalal Sharafi's allegations of a US role in his detention were "theatrics" from the "Iranian propaganda machine".

Mr Sharafi, second secretary at Iran's embassy in Baghdad, was freed last week. He was abducted in February.

He said CIA agents had interrogated him on his country's role in Iraq.

"The United States had nothing to do with Mr Sharafi's detention and we welcome his return to Iran," said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

When faced with my responses on Iran's official ties with the Iraqi government they increased the torture
Jalal Sharafi

"This is just the latest theatrics of a government trying to deflect attention away from its own unacceptable actions," he said.

A US military spokesman in Baghdad also said that multinational forces had nothing to do with Mr Sharafi's kidnapping.

'Increased the torture'

The Iranian envoy told the Irna state news agency he was subjected to torture "day and night".

"I was kidnapped on a Baghdad street while shopping by officials who had Iraqi defence ministry ID cards and were riding in American forces vehicles," he said.

Mr Sharafi said he was taken from the Karrada district to a base near Baghdad airport and questioned in Arabic and English.

"The CIA officials' questions focused mainly on Iran's presence and influence in Iraq," he said.

"When faced with my responses on Iran's official ties with the Iraqi government they increased the torture."

Iran's Fars news agency said: "He showed reporters the marks left by torture on his body that are now being treated by doctors."

Mr Sharafi was freed on 3 April. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari has said Baghdad does not know who held him.

Diplomatic tension remains high between Washington and Tehran over the detention by US forces of five Iranians in the Iraqi city of Irbil in January.

The US suspects them of aiding the Iraqi insurgency. Tehran says they have diplomatic status.

Iran this week released 15 UK sailors it had held for 13 days.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6536355.stm

Published: 2007/04/07 23:37:43 GMT

Iran Calls Britons' Alleged Mistreatment a 'Lie' - washingtonpost.com

Iran Calls Britons' Alleged Mistreatment a 'Lie' - washingtonpost.com

Iran Calls Britons' Alleged Mistreatment a 'Lie'

By Karla Adam
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, April 8, 2007; A16

LONDON, April 7 -- An Iranian official said Saturday that allegations of mistreatment from a British naval team seized last month in the Persian Gulf were unfounded and stage-managed.

"The mistreatment of the sailors is a lie," said Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Iran's presidential press adviser, according to Agence France-Presse. "By dictating certain statements made by the freed troops, the British authorities are seeking to improve their situation and diminish the pressure of British public opinion."

The 15 sailors and marines were captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in what they insist were Iraqi waters. Iran, which contends that the crew had crossed into Iranian waters, released the group Wednesday in a gesture President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called a gift to the British people.

The crew began two weeks of compassionate leave Saturday.

In a news conference Friday, six of the crew members said they were psychologically intimidated during their 13 days of captivity, and described being blindfolded and lined up facing a wall in a Tehran prison while guards cocked their guns.

A spokesperson for Britain's Defense Ministry said the Iranian "accusations of stage management speak for themselves."

In an interview with the Financial Times, the Iranian ambassador in London, Rasoul Movahedian, said: "We played our part, and we showed our goodwill. Now it is up to the British government to proceed in a positive way." Although no strings were attached to the release, the ambassador said Iran would welcome "any steps that could defuse tensions in the region."

The United States, Britain and Iran had said there would be no bargaining in the case. Iraqi officials said Saturday that the release of an Iranian diplomat on Tuesday -- the day before Ahmadinejad freed the British crew -- was coincidental.

Jalal Sharafi, who was seized in Baghdad on Feb. 4, told Iran's official news agency, IRNA, that he had been kidnapped by an Iraqi organization operating under CIA supervision and that he was tortured. The United States has denied involvement in his abduction or release.

Meanwhile, the Vatican acknowledged that Pope Benedict XVI had written to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hours before the group's release. The Guardian reported that the letter asked the supreme leader to do what he could to ensure the crew's return home by Easter.