Iran has released two Slovak citizens it had arrested for “possessing illegal equipment and violating the Islamic Republic’s laws.”
On July 1, Iran’s Prosecutor General announced that eight Slovak nationals and one Iranian had been arrested in Isfahan for taking pictures of restricted areas. The report added that the detainees had smuggled “illegal equipment.”
A Slovakian website reported at the time that the group was detained near the central city of Isfahan, where Iran has nuclear facilities.
Vladislav Figo, one of the Slovak paragliders released, had earlier been quoted as saying that they had not been aware they were breaking any rules, saying: “We had information that there was a ban on taking photographs below a height of 2,300 metres. We were taking pictures from higher altitudes.”
In September, six of the Slovak detainees were released by Iranian authorities and handed over to the Slovakia Embassy in Tehran. The remaining two Slovak citizens were held for further investigation and have now been released.
