AP:
HELSINKI — A third Iranian diplomat upset with Tehran’s
post-election crackdown on dissidents has defected in Europe — this
time in Belgium, an opposition group said Monday. The announcement
came just hours after the No. 2 man at Iran’s mission in Helsinki
said he will seek asylum in Finland…
The Europe-based Green Wave opposition movement said Farzad
Farhangian, press attache at the Iranian Embassy in Brussels,
walked out Friday and flew to Oslo. The group’s founder, Amir
Hossein Jahanchahi, said in a statement that “other defections from
diplomats abroad will follow.”
It was the third known defection of an Iranian diplomat in
Europe this year to protest Tehran’s crackdown.
Mohammed Reza Heydari, who was granted asylum in Norway after
leaving his post as an Iranian consular official there in January,
confirmed that Farhangian had defected in Brussels. Heydari said
Farhangian supported the opposition movement that grew out of
unrest following the June 2009 election…
Earlier Monday, Iranian diplomat Hossein Alizadeh, who resigned
last week from the embassy in Finland, told reporters that he will
apply for political asylum in the Nordic country.
“I cannot accept, tolerate this fraud election. The situation
got worse because … my people are being killed still,” Alizadeh
said in Helsinki. He added that he was no longer a diplomat but “a
political dissident,” and that he has no political ambitions except
to be a member of the opposition.
Booger| 9.13.10 @ 10:21PM
Wonder if the current administration would welcome these immigrants as warmly as we do the illegals pouring across our Southern border. Also wonder if they would be welcome to worship at the mosque of a certain imam in New York. Just a couple of random thoughts.