Sources say senior Iranian diplomat detained in March

A senior Iranian diplomat linked to Iran's reformists was detained in Tehran in March, possibly as part of a crackdown on dissidents ahead of the June presidential election, sources familiar with the case told Reuters on Tuesday.    

Bagher Asadi, who has previously been a senior diplomat at Iran's UN mission in New York and was most recently a director at the secretariat of the so-called D8 group of developing nations in Istanbul, was arrested in mid-March in the Iranian capital according to the sources, who requested anonymity.    

"We don't know why Ambassador Asadi was arrested," a source said, adding that it could be part of a pre-election crackdown.    

It was not clear where Asadi was being held, the sources said. Reuters was unable to independently verify any aspect of the matter - who arrested the 61-year-old diplomat, on what grounds or even if he had been detained.    

Last month Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said Tehran's silencing of journalists and opposition leaders could jeopardize the legitimacy of the presidential election in June.    

Opposition leaders Mehdi Karoubi and Mirhossein Mousavi, both candidates in the 2009 presidential election, are under house arrest following mass protests over alleged fraud in the re-election of Ahmadinejad that year.    

Some analysts say Iran's Islamic clerical leadership sees the risk of more serious unrest in the June 14 election and is cracking down in advance to minimize the impact.


REUTERS