A court in Shiraz released an Iranian Jew Wednesday after he completed his three-year term on charges of spying for Israel.
The court's chief justice Hussein Ali Amiri told reporters that "the court released Framrez Kashi who was arrested in 1999 on charges of joining an espionage network run by Iranian Jews working for the Israeli intelligence."
Faramarz Kashi is one of nine Iranian Jews detained for spying for Israel. Kashi, a 39-year-old professor, is the second one to leave prison, following Ramin Neematizadeh, who was released in September 2001.
Thirteen Iranian Jews were arrested in early 1999 on charges of spying for Israel. Three were acquitted and ten sentenced to jail terms ranging from two to nine years during a September 2000 trial, which sparked international outrage. The defendants were refused amnesty by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
After the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's 30,000-strong Jewish community was excluded from taking official administrative posts notably during the 1980-88 war with Iraq. The revolutionary court condemned Kashi for five years for collaborating with the Jewish state, but the court of appeals reduced the sentence to three years. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
