Two foreign visitors arrested in Iran

TEHRAN, Oct. 11 (MNA) -- Two foreign tourists who had sought to conduct an interview with the family of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani have been arrested, Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei announced on Monday.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has received a death sentence for committing murder and this sentence takes precedence over her conviction for committing adultery.

An Iranian criminal suspect, who had fled to a foreign country earlier, had called Mohammadi’s family and told them two foreign reporters wanted to conduct an interview with them, Mohseni-Ejei told reporters at a press conference in Tehran on Monday.

Mohseni-Ejei, who is also the national prosecutor general, said that on the day the foreigners visited the Mohammadi family, one of the family members became suspicious and informed the police.

After they were arrested, the evidence showed that they were not reporters and had traveled to Iran as tourists, he stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said political prisoners will receive harsher punishment if they continue to conduct seditious acts.

Mohseni-Ejei was referring to the political prisoners who have written political letters or issued statements from prison.

“If anyone convicted of a crime commits the same felony” during his incarceration or after being released from prison, he will receive a more severe punishment, he stated.

Seven suspects have been identified so far, but none of them have confessed to writing political letters or issuing statements from prison, he added.

He went on to say that over the past month the court has issued verdicts for 64 prisoners who were arrested during the post-election unrest in 2009.

Three of them were acquitted of all charges, and the others were sentenced to between six months and 19 and a half years in prison, he stated.