Extradition of an Iranian engineer to the United States by a French court is approved, this is to face charges of attempting to illegally import U.S. technology for military purposes on behalf of an Iranian company, a judicial source said on Thursday.
The court in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, also rejected a bail request by the Iranian engineer, Jalal Rohollahnejad, 41, who has been detained since Feb. 2 after being arrested at Nice airport as he got off a plane coming from Tehran via Moscow.
U.S. judicial investigators suspect Rohollahnejad of trying to import into Iran high-power industrial microwave systems from the United States that could be used for military purposes.
After withdrawing last May from a 2015 international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, the United States reimposed a raft of sanctions targeting a range of Iranian sectors.
U.S. judges say the engineer acted on behalf of a company linked to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
A decree by the French prime minister is still necessary for the extradition to go ahead.
Source: Reuters
