It was an unusual welcome for someone invited back by his government to help to solve a national crisis. As Kaveh Madani arrived at Tehran airport to take up his post as deputy head of Iran’s environment ministry, he was arrested.
Taken to an interrogation room, he was held for several hours. His laptop and phones were removed and their contents downloaded for inspection.
Ten months later, after a brief and unhappy tenure in office, he is back in exile in the West and claiming that events have vindicated his warnings about the crisis he was trying to solve.
.... He refuses to talk about what happened during his 72 hours in custody. But unlike his colleagues, he was allowed to leave. He resigned after six months, the final straw being the leaking of a video of him dancing with an unveiled woman at a party in America.
They let him go, but they have not forgotten him. The chief prosecutor for Tehran said Mr Madani’s decision to return to the West meant he knew he was guilty. “He will come back one day,” Abbas Dowlatabadi said. “We will get him sooner or later.” [The Times (£)] Read more
