Turkey has detained 11 people involved in the abduction and smuggling to Iran of an Iranian dissident wanted by Tehran in connection with a deadly 2018 attack in southwestern Iran, Reuters reported on Monday, citing Turkish authorities.
Turkey detains 11 people over abduction of Iranian dissident
STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: Habib Chaab, an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist leader, was drugged and kidnapped by a network working “on behalf of Iran’s intelligence service” after being lured into flying to Turkey by an Iranian intelligence operative, a senior official said.
Iran’s state media said in November that Iranian intelligence ministry officers arrested Chaab over suspected involvement in a 2018 attack on a military parade that killed dozens of people, without saying when or how he was detained.
Chaab, who was based in Sweden, was persuaded to fly to Turkey to meet a woman who, unknown to him, worked for Iranian intelligence, the Turkish official said.
When he arrived in Istanbul he went to a rendezvous point, where he was drugged and tied down, the official said. Istanbul police said Chaab was spirited from the city to Turkey’s eastern province of Van, and from there across the border into Iran.
The 11 people were arrested two weeks ago, police said.
The account of Chaab’s abduction was first reported by the Washington Post. There was no immediate public comment from Iran.
