You are in > manchester.com  > News > Iran summons UK ambassador over prisoner release

International affairs

Iran summons UK ambassador over prisoner release

13/10/2008

Iran has summoned the British ambassador in Tehran to protest over the release of the only surviving member of a group of gunmen who seized the Iranian embassy in London in 1980.

Reports on Friday suggested that Fowzi Nejad, 50, was due to be released from prison within the next few days after spending the last 27 years behind bars.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Mehdi Safari summoned Geoffrey Adams on Sunday in protest of the "condemnable and indefensible" action.

Tehran is reported to have demanded that Nejad is returned to Iran so he came be tried once again for his crimes.

Six men seized the Iranian embassy in April 1980 demanding the release of prisoners back in Iran and taking 21 hostages. The siege was finally ended when SAS troops stormed the building, freeing 19 of the hostages and killing five of the gunmen.

Nejad was the only surviving member and was sentenced to life in prison in 1981.

On Friday, the Guardian newspaper quoted his lawyer as saying the Parole Board no longer deemed the 50-year-old a threat and be was to be released imminently.