Dr. Soleimani is being used as a political pawn by US neoconservatives: Scholar

Dr. Masoud Soleimani, who has been illegally imprisoned in the United States since October last year, is being used as a political pawn by US neoconservatives, Zionists who are hostile towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to Dr. Kevin Barrett.

Barrett said that Dr. Soleimani “should be protected by habeas corpus,” which is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person's release unless lawful grounds are shown for his detention.

Barrett, an author, journalist and radio host with a Ph.D. in Islamic and Arabic Studies, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV while commenting on the year-long incarceration by police in the United States. 

Dr. Soleimani’s family has condemned the imprisonment of the Iranian stem cell scientist as a “hostile” and “inhumane act” meant to pressure Iran’s government, calling for his immediate release.

Speaking during a press briefing at Press TV’s headquarters in Tehran on Tuesday, Soleimani’s wife, Dr. Mahnaz Rabeie, censured the US for keeping the scientist behind bars for an entire year without any fair trial.

Rabeie rejected a claim that her husband had been arrested for violating US sanctions against Iran, saying the incarceration was politically motivated.

PressTV- US jailing without trial of Iran scientist inhumane: Family

Dr. Someilani’s family attend a news briefing organized by Press TV in Tehran to mark one year since the scientist was imprisoned in the US in the absence of a fair trial.

Commenting on this Dr. Barrett said, “Dr. Masoud Soleimani, who is a respected Iranian biological scientist, was lured to the United States in order to set him for a completely bogus arrest on false pretences of supposedly violating sanctions on Iran." 

“And he has been held without any due process, essentially disappeared like in a banana republic for a year now. His family is naturally in a kind of panic and suffering horribly. And this is a tremendous injustice. It is obviously purely political," he said. 

“What he is accused of doing is not itself a violation of sanctions. He is accused of having been involved in bringing of a small amount of non-commercial biological material -- with no weapons use whatsoever -- to Iran, a small amount of experimental biological material for medical research, and medical materials like that are specifically excluded from Iran sanctions. So that’s probably why they are not bringing him to trial, because they don’t have a case," he added. 

“And it just illustrates how the rule of law has gone by the wayside since the false flag event of September 11, 2001 which was specifically designed not only to create permanent hostility against the entire Middle East region on behalf of Israel but also to take down the United States Constitution and the rule of law so that the gangster oligarchs can do anything they want without having to be worried about any legal issues," he noted. 

“And so Dr. Soleimani who is a totally respected, an utterly clean man with a perfect record, no criminal record whatsoever, not even accused of doing anything involved in politics or US-Iranian relations, he is only accused of shipping a very small amount of experimental medical material for medical research with no possible nefarious usage. He’s being made a political pawn to this neoconservative hostility towards Iran, the neoconservative Zionists, who are allied with the Netanyahu Likudnic element of the Israeli power structure and are dedicated to stirring up endless hostility between the United States and Iran,” he said. 

“Dr. Soleimani should be protected by habeas corpus. You just can’t just disappear people in a country that respects human rights; you have to charge them quickly with something and give them the chance to defend themselves. And they are not doing that. They are just kidnapping him, presumably to try to put pressure on Tehran and possibly to use him in some kind of a prisoner swap," Dr. Barrett observed. 

Dr. Soleimani arrived in the US on October, 22, 2018 with a visa issued upon an invitation by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to lead a research program on the treatment of stroke patients. 

He was, however, arrested by the FBI, which had a secret indictment, upon arrival at the Chicago airport. His visa was canceled and he was transferred to a jail in Atlanta, Georgia.

PressTV-US jailing of top scientist ‘pressure tool against Iran’

The sanctions violation charges leveled by the US against Iranian stem cell scientist Dr. Masoud Soleimani are a mere “excuse” to justify his illegal imprisonment.

Soleimani’s whereabouts remained unknown for up to a week until the Chicago airport police claimed that the professor had returned to Iran on a Qatari flight, according to statement issued by his family on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have accused Soleimani, who works in stem cell research, hematology and regenerative medicine, and two of his former students of conspiring and attempting to export growth hormone vials from the US to Iran without authorization, in violation of American sanctions.

They had secretly obtained an indictment against Soleimani in June 2018, prior to his arrival on US soil.

Lawyers for the scientists say no specific license was required for the attempted transport because the hormones are medical materials and that bringing them to Iran for non-commercial purposes does not amount to exporting goods.

The hormone, which is a form of synthetic protein, is not banned in the US or Iran and is being used exclusively for medical research.

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