Alwaght-Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani says the United States must immediately release Iranians held in the country’s prisons and Tehran's assets confiscated by Washington.
“We remind the American [officials] of the 40 years of their violation of Iranian people’s rights and tell them that Iranian citizens held in notorious US prisons in breach of all international regulations, conventions and laws must be released in the shortest possible time,” Larijani said in a meeting with senior Iranian judicial officials in Tehran on Monday.
“We tell them here that you (the US) should immediately release Iranian citizens held captive in US prisons,” he stated.
He added that Washington must also release Iran’s property seized by the US in blatant piracy and banditry over baseless charges such as acts of terror in other countries.
Iran's Judiciary chief further pointed to a recent statement by the White House against the Islamic Republic and said, “Trump and his administration must know that threats will have no impact on Iran and that they better learn lessons from their predecessors.”
The White House issued a statement on Friday, warning Iran of "new and serious consequences" unless all detained American citizens in Iran were released and returned.
According to the statement, Donald Trump urged Iran to return Robert Levinson, an American former law enforcement officer, and also demanded that Tehran release Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his father, Baqer, who are serving 10-year sentences, as well as Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, who also recently received a 10-year term.
The Iranian Judiciary chief further stated that the US had made a “meaningless and irrational” demand for the release of Levinson, because the Islamic Republic has repeatedly announced, through legal channels, that this person had left the country and that there was no information on his whereabouts.
Ayatollah Larijani emphasized that the US president and his administration had no right to use the language of threats against Iran and other countries, saying that the Iranian people had successfully resisted against various acts of aggression and threats over the past 40 years.
He added that the White House’s threatening statement “once again shows that they [Americans] have no correct understanding of the Islamic Republic and the region and the adoption of such stands is the best reason for their ignorance and lack of intelligence.”
