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Hassan Qashqavi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranian Expatriates' Affairs More
than 60 Iranian nationals are being held in US prisons, 11 of them on
political grounds and without any proof or evidence, an Iranian official
says.

Hassan Qashqavi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular, Parliamentary
and Iranian Expatriates' Affairs, made the remark during an interview
with IRNA on Saturday.

He pointed out that among the Iranian prisoners in the United States
were Amir Hossein Ardebili, extradited to the US by Georgia, and
Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan, arrested under false charges.

A US District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, handed out a five-year
term to Ardebili based on the prosecutor's claim that he had "secretly
pleaded guilty" to arms smuggling and weapons export charges.

Shahrzad was arrested in the US in December 2007 after being forced to return to the United States from a vacation in Cyprus.

Her former husband, Mahmoud Seif, had allegedly tried to export
night-vision goggles to Iran from Austria. However, she was detained and
sentenced to five years in prison by a Florida federal court in the
absence of her husband.

Qashqavi also referred to the case of former Iranian Ambassador to
Jordan Nosratollah Tajik. He said that Tajik has been under house arrest
in the UK over ... >>>