LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) – Britain’s Foreign Office said on Thursday that a British citizen reported to have been arrested in Iran is not currently being detained by authorities there.
Independent news site Iran Wire reported the arrest of a dual British-Iranian national named Mahan Abedin on Wednesday, citing an unidentified source in the capital Tehran.
Asked on Thursday about Abedin’s arrest, a Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of media reports of the arrest of a British citizen in Iran. We have been in contact with the family and they have confirmed that he is not currently in detention.”
Iran Wire said he worked as a security analyst but did not spell out when or where he was arrested or where he lived. The report indicated that he was visiting Iran when he was taken into custody.
Last Wednesday, the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had detained Abbas Edalat, a British-Iranian national who is a professor of computer science at Imperial College in London, in mid-April.
At least three other British-Iranian dual citizens are known to be held in the Islamic Republic, whose relations with Britain have been strained for many years.
(Reporting by William James; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
